Silent
by Hyperjade
Summary: wake up, kid. You're not where you're supposed to be. Well, maybe you are. Maybe this will help. Maybe you're exactly where you're supposed to be. At least, now. Now you are. You will never have to do what you used to do. Am I confusing you? Maybe I should be more clear... Welcome to your new life.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, everybody. This is Hyperjade.**

 **Welcome to Silent, a new story. This, like Absol Lhant, will likely be updated less than the main three I currently have running. I will update when I have the urge to write a chapter for it, ignoring the cycle of stories.**

 **Next thing that must be said: I will do my best NOT to spoil another story during this one, and I doubt I will. However, you might find some information you find interesting nonetheless.**

 **This started out as an experimental chapter, but I find myself interested in where it could go. I do like RWBY. As in, I really enjoyed it. I do certainly disagree with many of the choices that were made during the third season, but that is my opinion, and it does not detract from the first two seasons in any way. I will simply adjust events in season three if I get that far to fit what I would prefer happened.**

 **And with nothing else to actually say to start this off, Welcome, everyone, to the world of Remnant.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

"Wake up, kid."

Blank darkness. One voice. Nonthreatening. Warm. Kind? Important? Order given… First hand clenches. Soil can be found underneath. Second hand clenches. There is a stone. Right leg moved. Weight on the legs. Familiar?

Hands push down, right knee pulled under, back bought back, left leg pulled forward, left foot planted on the ground. Kneeling position. Unfamiliar position. Eyes closed. Warm light apparent. Sunlight?

"You're not where you're supposed to be."

Statement. Confusion. Accurate? Assessing the situation. Earth underneath. Air feels… Richer? Sharper. More oxygen. More energizing. Where is this?

"Well, maybe you are."

Contradiction. Confusion. Speaker's own uncertainty is evident. Warm light creating calm. Friend? Enemy? Target? Why target?

"Maybe this will help."

Tone. Multiple potential meanings. Misunderstood. Require clarification.

"Maybe you're exactly where you are supposed to be."

Understood. Location appears to be capable of helping. Help what? Confusion… Why is there so much confusion?

"At least, now. Now you are."

Unclear. Was there danger?

"You will never have to do what you used to do."

Dangerous occupation?

"Am I confusing you?"

Confusion. Seeming contradictions. Direct question. Nod.

"Maybe I should be more clear…"

Appreciation. Relief. Foreign thoughts.

"Welcome to your new life."

New life. New location. Foreign thoughts and emotions. Further understanding. Lack of memory. Background sounds apparent. Birds singing. Familiar sound. Different meaning. Eyes open. Failure to understand.

The boy in his kneeling position opened his eyes. Looking upwards at the girl in front of him, he stared blankly. Gold. White and gold. Female. Unnatural gold color. Glowing. Golden eyes. Weapon in hand.

"Hey, kid." The girl said, smiling down at the confused boy. "Glad to see you awake. I decided to just wake you up after a little bit. Some introduction would be nice, obviously. I nicked the dialogue from earlier from the description, of course."

Description? Introduction?

"I'm Magic." The girl said, striking her thumb to her chestplate. "Guardian of, but you don't have to include that bit if you don't want to. So here's the deal. This is an entirely different world, with entirely different people, with entirely different laws of physics and magic and darkness and everything else."

The boy ran through his disjointed thoughts, staring at the girl. He waited. She laughed at him, which caused surprise and confusion to flash through his eyes.

"You don't have to wait around for orders anymore." She told him.

Is that what I am doing?

"Yep. That's what you're doing. I'm not gonna tell you to stand up. Heck, you don't even have to listen to my explanation if you don't want to." She replied to the unspoken question.

Astonishment. No words spoken. Permission to move freely? Why had I waited for it?

"Making progress already, are we?" She asked with a smile "Good. Fixing people's heads is always easy to get right, but then you have to make sure that the people get back into the groove of actual life. You might have realized by now that you remember very little."

Blank. Search the mind, receive no signal.

"That is honestly because you didn't have much capacity to remember. You would only remember a few things from your past, considering most of your mind was completely inoperable." The girl continued.

…?

"Basically, all you had was the ability to remember one target and…. Well, your only function was to kill. The people who damaged you permanently, they only left your mind able to keep what might be necessary to kill your target, and to obey orders. I obviously fixed that."

Killing was my sole purpose?

"Yes, unfortunately." The golden girl waved her hand dismissively. "But that's nothing compared to who you are now. Blank slate, kid. None of the times you killed mean anything to the people of this world. And because you have your mind this time, you can make yourself a life here."

A life…

"So I'll let you get to it, actually. It's probably better that you learn from the locals rather than little old me." Magic decided. "By the way, your train's leaving in twenty minutes. You should probably get on it."

...Train?

"Now, off I get. Have fun, Mute. And remember: Fighting may be what you will mostly be best at, but try to make some friends, okay?"

...Friends?

But the golden girl vanished in a flash of light, leaving the boy alone. He slowly stood up, looking around himself. The trees held bright orange colors. Everything around him showed the colors of fall. He looked down. On his feet were two metal boots with a familiar weight. In front of him was a little tablet made of gold.

" _Oh, and before I forget… Well, I'm sending this to you because I totally forgot, guilty as charged, but still, I decided on a semblance for you. Considering you've never been able to speak, making you able to might have confused you more than necessary. So others can understand what you want to say through eye contact. Simple enough? Look people in the eyes and think. Go for it, kid."_

Mute watched as the tablet vanished in golden light as well. He blinked. Confusion, yet with a goal in mind. He started walking, unsure of his direction.

 **Clank**.

His boots made an awful lot of noise.

In ten minutes, he came across a ravine of sorts with a set of large tracks along the bottom. He stared at those tracks for several minutes, mentally placing them in his memory as well as he could. There would be a train of sorts… Through here?

Yes. A massive line of cars started roaring past at intense speeds. This was his 'train' that the golden girl mentioned.

The boy's expression never changed as he watched it, even eyes staring it down. Then, when he felt that it was time, he leaped and began skidding down the steep slope with his boots. Then, he leaped, instinctively bringing his boots around as sickle-shaped blades slid from the bottom of them.

He slammed into the roof of the building, his blades slowing his movement to a halt and leaving large rents in the metal surface. Mute inspected the weapons in his boot, realizing he somehow knew how to make the blades retract themselves, flicking his foot so that they did not get in the way. Knowledge of his weapons he found in his memory, the only thing that was truly clear to him.

He saw nothing else to do but walk on. The train rushed onwards through the forest, and Mute continued watching the ridges of the forest above as he walked, keeping in mind that ambushes could happen.

 **Clank**

 **Clank**

 **Clank**

 **Clank**

This continued for quite some time. The boy walked up and found himself at a trap door of sorts. He blinked, looking at it. There was a lock-like thing on it. Mute stared at it almost uncomprehendingly, uncertain of what he was intended to be doing with this door. Should he just walk on?

Eventually, he decided it didn't matter so much to him. He didn't need to open this door, certainly not. The weather was pleasant. And the wind elicited a sense of calm. So he continued walking, past the door.

Eventually, an open part of the train was obviously there to go down to. Mute saw that there were some sort of mechanical things walking around the place. It was likely a good thing that he had not landed in such a place, instead electing to land on the roof of one of the closed cars.

There he stood, white t-shirt and long pants flowing in the wind, as he stared down at everything. Then, he sensed something. His head turned as he witnessed two specks sail from the passing landscape much like he did and skidded to a halt on the train. Then, they darted forward at impressive speeds to emerge right by the door the boy had skipped earlier.

The male flashed his blade and severed the lock, and then held it open. It appeared as though the door had been important after all. After the two vanished into the building, Mute turned around and continued looking over the platform in front of him, wondering if he should continue moving forward.

Even as he started hearing a commotion directly beneath him, and metal being torn apart, he was tilting his head slightly and watching the patterns of the robots change. It seemed that they had been somehow alerted of something. They began to run towards the boy, who did not visibly tense.

Then, the door beneath him that he had not seen was blasted off its hinges and sent flying into the distance, running over a few robots. He looked on blankly as the two he had seen before, a male and a female, ran on, tearing into the robots. He saw the girl use some odd ribbon weapon that she swung the gun and blade attached to it around, slicing enemies to pieces as she did so.

The other one, he flashed his blade out of its sheath and back into it, and the enemies in front of him would fall to pieces with relative ease. The boy analyzed the two quickly. The girl, he could sever the ribbon she used to make her weapon work. Mute, he could block the weapon and keep it from entering its sheath and proceed to defeat him.

Then the sheath apparently became a shotgun of sorts when the blade was removed. This was troublesome, but Mute soon had an idea of how to deal with it. He recognized his skill in this manner, seeing that he seemed to already know how to defeat these two.

The two ran into the next car up, and the boy, seeing that there were no robots left, stepped off of the roof and fell onto the next car without much hassle. Walking along the side of the car, seeing the ground race beneath him, the boy avoided the standalone crates and piles that somehow stayed on the car, and walked towards the destination of the two others.

He leaped to the top of the next car and continued walking along it, hearing more of a commotion in there. These weapons seemed different. And whatever was walking was making the same noise as his boots as it walked.

Then a humming noise reached his ears, and he looked over the edge of the next car, to see that door being blasted apart as the two people were thrown away by a strike of sorts.

The large robot that approached out of the gate to meet them caught the boy's attention. The robot approached the two, and the man turned to his female companion. "Buy me some time!" He shouted.

"Are you sure?"

"Do it!"

The girl darted in towards the robot. Mute watching the battle then witnessed her power in action. As he watched images of her be blown away while she appeared elsewhere. That would be more difficult to combat than the man.

The boy dropped down to the platform and began walking along the metal surface as the robot blasted it's massive beam attack again. However, the man caught it with his blade and shoved the energy into this sheath. Mute found this particularly familiar. Yet the boy walked on. He saw out of the corner of his eye as the male he had been watching used that energy to completely vaporize the pouncing spider bot.

Adam finished sheathing his weapon and stood up. He heard more clanking along the ground, which sounded an awful lot like the spider bot. He turned, only to blink in confusion behind his mask. The man watched a boy with orange hair walk right by them, stepping onto the next car, almost as if what he had just walked by was of no consequence to him.

Adam turned and saw Blake standing upon the train, the wind blowing her hair about as she stood right before the connecting piece for the train. Adam saw what she was going to do ahead of time, and held his hand out in protest, as well as confusion.

"Goodbye." She said quietly and drew her blade. She proceeded to sever the carlink and Adam's side of the car lurched as it began to slow, no longer pulled behind the rest of the train. He stared in shock as the girl's car moved out of jumping range.

" _What about the crew members?"_ The words echoed through Adam's memories. He growled and clenched his fists. That had cost him. He stared at the girl, who was still visible, recognizing a look of sadness, perhaps even disappointment.

Adam did not know what to make of it. So he watched the girl move away from him, entirely forgetting about the boy that had simply walked past them so carelessly it seemed that it hadn't mattered at all.

Blake was not so sure of that. After she watched the back end of that train vanish into the hills as the train passed a corner, she turned, seeing the boy continue to walk away. "Hey!" She called.

The boy stopped and turned his head to look at her out of the corners of his eyes.

"Who are you?" She asked warily.

Mute looked her in the eyes, as he had been told to do.

I don't know.

Blake frowned. "You don't…" she trailed off, blinking "How did you-"

However, the boy continued to walk away. **Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank.** His footsteps rang through the silence as he traveled forward. "...You should stay here." Blake told the boy, who stopped. "There will be more security just ahead, and maybe more actual people further down. It would be easier just to get off when you can."

The boy turned to her again.

I do not know where I am going.

Blake's frown deepened. She did not know how he was expressing his points, but he clearly had no idea where he was going or what he was doing. "Then stay here. I will lead you." She offered.

She received a nod, and the boy walked closer to her. She tensed, but he simply stood next to her and silently gazed upon the track as it rushed below.

* * *

Blake stared at the boy as they neared their stop. Confusion nagged at the back of her mind as she tried to understand the boy in front of her, and why she had invited him along. Something about his turquoise eyes and orange hair seemed odd, like he was in no way normal.

Perhaps that reminded her quite a bit of herself. The boy in front of her never spoke, never even opened his mouth. He looked her in the eye, and she knew what he needed to know or was asking. Blake, in a moment of amusement, joked in her mind that it was usually people who knew each other for most of their lives who could just understand each other with a look.

"This is our stop…" she muttered, seeing that the train was passing through the city now, and slowing down. The boy that had decided to follow her jumped off after her, as they landed on the walkway nearby.

Blake looked over, seeing that the pavement around the boy had cracked under his boots. Not very stealthy, that one. He lifted his feet from the damaged ground and stepped onto the regular, undamaged ground, and looked at the girl. He tilted his head a bit, blinking.

What are we doing here?

"Getting away from the White Fang," Blake replied. "And I have an idea of how to go about this."

* * *

The boy looked at the arena surrounding him. Above the room, in a rectangular window, stood a victorious Blake and a man known as professor Ozpin. "Do you believe this boy is ready?" Ozpin asked the girl beside him.

"Not for certain," Blake replied shortly. "He is very strange."

"That much is for certain." Ozpin nodded. "It is not often that I see turquoise eyes."

Before Blake could think too much about why the odd man continued to mention their eye colors, Ozpin pressed a button down. "We are going to ask you to demonstrate your skills in combat through a series of tests. Please, attempt to strike every target you can."

Mute looked up through the window, straight into Ozpin's eyes.

Okay.

Ozpin blinked, as he had the last time the boy communicated with him. Interesting that the boy's semblance appeared to be to communicate through eye contact.

Ozpin began the mechanism for short range combat. The boy's eyes seemed to shadow over as he waited, and the two watched, noticing that he still stood listlessly. Blake looked on with eyes narrowed. "What is he doing?" She asked, talking more to herself than anybody else.

The first target, a small red and white disk on a stick, shot from a slot the boy stood near. The target was instantly slashed into three neat pieces by the boy's boot, which had produced sickle-like blades from the base.

The boy's eyes never changed from that calm or sometimes dull look. Eventually, targets began to appear and be destroyed as quickly as they emerged. The cheaply made targets approached at impressive speeds, and the boy missed not one. Blake watched as her score was easily surpassed before the targets became too distant for Mute to hit them all for no other reason than his legs were not long enough.

Ozpin ended the program calmly, seemingly neutral about what he had just witnessed. Blake, however, wondered what might have become of her had this kid turned out to be an enemy. Being on the losing side constantly and fighting back… It tends to put a self-preservation instinct within oneself.

Ozpin nodded at Glynda, who had joined them. "I have decided to welcome these two to Beacon Academy." He told the woman, who nodded curtly, and wrote something down on her screen using a stylus.

"Very well, Ozpin." She said to the man, before turning and leaving the room. As the boy made his way out of the room, Blake had to admit that she was very impressed with the speed the boy showed in combat even with such heavy and unorthodox weapons.

Mute approached. Ozpin sensed his wish to understand why the woman he passed had been so angry. "Glynda is simply short-tempered and… Overly formal." The headmaster explained. "And the fact that you tore apart the metal surface of the arena seems to have given her a foreboding feeling."

The boy blinked before looking at Blake.

"I don't know what's next," Blake answered the unspoken question.

"You two may preemptively stay in rooms at the academy until such time as the school year starts," Ozpin said. He had determined Blake's identity quickly. The boy that accompanied her, however, he was confused by. Yet, the boy made it clear that he did not have a place to go considering how he spoke, or rather, communicated.

The boy nodded, as did Blake. The two departed the room quickly, emerging in a hallway near the elevator to professor Ozpin's office. "This place seems more informal than I imagined," Blake commented.

Her acquaintance was looking out a window at the grounds, and did not answer. The girl realized that the boy quite literally had no idea what to do next, so she began walking through the building with her book in her hands. Immediately, she was aware of the sounds of the boy walking behind her, following her like a lost puppy. She shivered at the analogy she made. Kitten. Lost kitten.

"Where do you come from?" She asked, turning to him. She learned that he was uncertain, and that, to her surprise, he had few memories. She then learned that some girl had woken him up, spoken some gibberish, and then disappeared. "That is… Odd."

He nodded, and she continued. "So I guess your semblance is to communicate with eye contact…" she muttered, "Can you actually speak?"

No.

She looked away, feeling awkward. This kid was very difficult to talk to. Keeping someone in your eyesight at all times while you talk to them, well, people may get the wrong idea from two people staring into each others' eyes constantly.

"...Have you ever opened your mouth?"

Apparently not. The girl sighed and rubbed her temples. "Okay." she said, "I think we're supposed to make do for the next few days."

And looking at the boy's blank face, she recognized that these next few days would be particularly awkward and boring at times. It was a good thing she had bought her books.

* * *

"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day **ever**!"

"Please stop…" Ruby muttered weakly as she was being crushed by her powerful sister.

All of the new students were flying to Beacon for the first time now. The first years were doing various things on the ride, including the many, many people who were staring out of the windows to watch the city below. It was Pyrrha who calmly sat on a chair in the transport, reading the recent news and listening to the young girl complain about wanting to have normal knees.

She looked at the roster for the school, watching the people fly by as she scrolled down. After her tests to be allowed into the school, she had requested this list of people that she may wish to become acquainted with.

Her finger ghosted across the sensitive holographic screen, causing names and images to fly by. She could see who was here, and their pictures, but she had no further information. Pyrrha had accepted the limitation that she would not be granted further information because that information was very obviously private. However, she could still learn what to expect.

Cardin, for example, had a smug smirk on his face in the picture, telling her that he was someone to be wary of.

She stopped at some names that she had not seen before. They had been recently added. Blake Belladonna, and a boy simply named Mute. No last name, and the image was odd. She felt an odd surge of wariness seeing that expression on the boy. His orange hair and turquoise eyes would have helped make his expression brighter and more clear, if he did not bear a slight frown and dull eyes.

Something about that image concerned her. She did not even notice the boy stumbling past her, airsick. "Friend of yours?" A boy named Ren asked, seeming to appear directly next to her. She shivered from the boy's silent entrance, but she looked at him for a moment.

"No, I was simply searching the roster." She told the boy "Does anything about his expression seem… Off to you?"

"Like he's barely awake." Ren shrugged. "Must have been tired after whatever challenge he went through to get into this school. Maybe they took his picture right after."

"Perhaps…" Pyrrha admitted, continuing to scroll on until she found the boy next to her. "Ren, huh?"

"That's me." He nodded. He sat down next to Pyrrha, and the warrior realized that Ren had a shadow. A bright pink and white shadow with orange hair.

"Hey, Ren!" She exclaimed.

"Hello, Nora," Ren replied in his quiet voice.

The hyperactive girl zipped all the way around the seat and next to Pyrrha faster than Pyrrha could fathom. "Oooh," she said, sending the list of students flying up on the screen very quickly with a flick of her hand. She then stopped it with a finger, right on herself. "It's me!"

" _How did she do that?"_ Pyrrha asked herself mentally. Ren shot her a look that said: Just roll with it.

Pyrrha surrendered the list to the excited girl and sat back, trying to relax. "Welcome to Beacon…" she murmured. She was soon distracted by a news report about the man named Roman Torchwick, who was responsible for many of the recent crimes that involved stealing dust. This was followed by more news of the White Fang attacking during what was supposed to be a peaceful civil rights protest. Finally, Glynda Goodwitch interrupted that bit of news with her welcoming speech.

"Who's that?" Pyrrha heard a blond girl nearby ask.

"I am Glynda Goodwitch."

"Oh."

Ren chuckled at the sight, before paying close attention to the words that Glynda used.

Pyrrha traveled alone after a polite goodbye to the odd duo out of the airship, witnessing a boy with a simple sword and sheath throwing up in the nearest bin, she tried to ignore it and walk onwards. She traveled straight towards the building, having seen it before and did not spend time marveling on the design of the building.

Indoors, the crowd of people was growing. Mingling and talking. She saw a familiar girl with bright blond hair being swarmed by her friends, and she saw her new acquaintances Ren and Nora off to the side. She supposed the quiet boy had grown accustomed to his eccentric friend.

Pyrrha walked through the crowd, politely asking to be let by as she attempted to forge her way through the crowds. The room was teeming with people, all getting to know one another in the most distracting of ways.

However, there was one place devoid of other people. The boy, who she remembered was simply called 'Mute', stood utterly alone. He had his arms listlessly by his sides, looking up at the stage blankly. Pyrrha steeled herself and strode forward. "Hello?" She asked. The boy looked her in the eye, turning his head.

She blinked. "Are you alright?" She asked. She sensed that the boy was confused to a degree, yet anticipating the speech to come. Pyrrha blinked again. How had she read him so easily? "Erm… What is your name?" She asked, despite knowing the answer.

She learned that it was Mute again, just like that. How was this kid doing what he was doing? Pyrrha began to feel extremely creeped out by Mute. When she said nothing more, he turned back to look at the stage, apparently not one to strike up conversation.

Mute watched the girl leave out of the corner of his eyes. He had not understood her wariness. The girl before, Blake, had shown less wariness than that. Looking straight at the stage felt like something he might do, yet he kept having an urge to do something entirely different. Mute became confused attempting to decide which to do.

He forced his eyes away from the stage many minutes later, in the end. Nothing was happening up there. Perhaps that was why he was compelled to look away. "Bored of staring at nothing?" A cocky voice asked him.

He turned to look at the teenager before him. He was taller than Mute. He had a smirk that had Mute thinking he might do something he would regret. "What's with the blank stare?" He asked.

Mute offered no answer. The boy stared this new kid in the eyes, unimpressed with the boy's attempt at aggravating him. He did not know the name of this boy, but walking away may be a good idea. The silent boy, deciding he had no intention of staying, stepped away from the offending boy.

"Where do you think you're going?" The boy asked.

No response.

"Running away from me?"

No response. Mute was elsewhere. Cardin blinked, then narrowed his eyes.

Mute regretted changing what he was doing a few moments later as a crowd of people promptly went to trample him as they moved in a group. Steeling his stance, the boy allowed the group of people to swarm around him and away.

He watched them go blankly, not truly thinking much about it, when he turned and his face slammed into something unprecedented. His momentum even in the first step was enough to knock the thing back, which turned out to be a girl with bright blond hair and quite the interesting set of clothing.

His eyes widened slightly upon seeing her face and blonde hair. He was given a flash of memory of a girl with similar blond hair and a similar face, smiling and laughing amongst some creatures of sorts. His leg muscles twitched, and he realized he had almost attacked the girl right there. "Oh, Hi." the girl said, her very bright hair swaying behind her. "Didn't see you there. What's your name?"

Mute forced himself to look the girl in the eyes. What did she remind him of so much that he almost lashed out on instinct? He directly thought of his name, and the girl, like most others showed surprise at his method of communication. But to his surprise, she recovered quite quickly. "That's cool." She said with a smile.

Mute tilted his head in confusion. Cool? What did the temperature have to do with his method of communication?

Apparently, that question had reached the girl, who laughed. "Not exactly a social animal, are you?" She asked teasingly "Well, I'm Yang. Nice to meet you." Mute blinked a couple times at this enthusiastic interaction between him and her.

He expressed his confusion and then informed the girl that she reminded him of someone.

"...Well, I don't know who that is, but hey. That's fine. We can still be friends." She told the boy, who blinked and tilted his head again. What did she mean by friend?

Yang did wind up taken aback this time. "What!?" She exclaimed, "You don't even know what 'friend' means?"

Mute shook his head, before looking at her with his blank expression once more. He watched Yang turn away and start muttering to herself. "Something must be done about this." She muttered in a serious tone, before she turned back. "Okay!" She exclaimed, moving over and wrapping her arm around the boy's shoulders "Friend lesson number one!"

Mute tensed as the girl touched him and then tensed even more as she pulled him away. She hadn't explained anything to him. "Friends hang out with each other, for starters," Yang said, having fully decided to be Mute's friend no matter how creepy that stare could be.

Hang out? Mute wanted to know, meeting her eyes.

"Okay, if you don't know what that means, I'll just have to teach you that too." Yang decided quickly, figuring this kid had lived devoid of any real human interaction for his entire life if he didn't know these things. "But that speech is about to start, so let's start by hanging out and listening to it!"

She pulled Mute over to a spot in the crowd where they could see the stage, and Yang shooed away some people scrambling to find places to stand for whatever reason. Mute wound up standing by her without much understanding as to why this girl was talking about random things with her. He preferred talking to Blake. That one stayed on topic, at least. This girl was just going on about random things, it seemed. Talking about her baby sister attending Beacon quite a bit.

And Mute eventually saw why, considering how Yang suddenly called over to a girl who had just walked into the room. "Ruby! Over here!" Yang called, drawing her sister's attention. "I saved you a spot!"

Both watched the short girl in red and black quickly say something to 'vomit boy', as Yang called him when she leaned over to whisper about the guy in Mute's ear. Mute was rather certain that the boy's name wasn't actually vomit boy. Nevertheless, the girl bounded up to the two of them, ignoring Mute for the moment.

"How's your first day going, little sister?" Yang asked Ruby.

Ruby looked cross. "You mean since you ditched me and I **exploded**?" She asked. Mute looked over at the girl with mild surprise showing on his face.

"Yikes. Meltdown already?" Yang asked.

"No, I mean I literally exploded a **hole** in front of the school!" She exclaimed. Mute believed her, considering the expression on her face. "And there was fire, and I **think** some ice?"

"Are you being sarcastic?" Yang asked slowly, teasingly.

"Ugh, I wish. I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me…" Ruby began explaining, and Mute stiffened at the presence of another girl right behind her that he could see. She approached slowly as Ruby spoke, and Mute tensed, ready to strike if anything unfortunate happened.

"You!"

Ruby jumped straight into Yang's arms. "Oh god it's happening again!" She whimpered.

The white haired girl glared at her. "You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" She shouted angrily.

Yang looked down at her sister in her arms. "Oh my god you really exploded." She said slowly, in realization. Mute recognized now that the confusion was over for the moment, although he still wondered if he was going to have to kick this white girl before she attacked the red girl. He also wondered if it would be appropriate to be lethal about it. Most likely not.

"It was an accident!" Ruby protested, getting back to her feet. "It was an accident!" Suddenly, an odd piece of paper was shoved in her face. "What's this?"

"The Schnee Dust Company-..." The girl began to ramble on in a pre-prepared speech that was harder and harder to listen to as time went on. Mute memorized every word while the other girls promptly zoned out.

"Uh…" Ruby looked at her.

"Do you really want to start making things up to me?" She asked.

"...Absolutely?"

The girl shoved her pamphlet into Ruby's hands. "Read this and don't ever speak to me again." She ordered, before turning around. Yang spoke up quickly.

"Look, I think you guys just had a bad start. Why not try to be friends?" She offered. Mute glanced at the girl, mentally asking if 'friend', simply meant the opposite of 'enemy'. "No, it's a bit more complicated than that, Mute." Yang continued.

Weiss finally stopped and looked at the silent boy. Ruby noticed him at the same time, and suddenly Mute had three girls staring at him. He looked from one to the other, not bothering to think any specific questions.

"Why's he called Mute?" Ruby asked, totally distracted now. She seemed to have gotten distracted very easily.

"Because he's mute, you dip." Weiss proclaimed after a moment. "He clearly can't or won't speak."

"Oh…" Ruby said. She looked a bit downtrodden. Mute felt a stab of sympathy, a new emotion for him to deal with yet **again** , which irritated him, considering he had no idea how to sort it out. He settled for looking Weiss in the eyes and giving her the simple message that he could still communicate.

Weiss stepped back away from him. "Okay, that is extremely creepy." She announced, confusing Ruby quite a bit. The young girl looked between Weiss and Mute confusedly. Mute stayed silent, obviously.

Confusion. Feeling. Undefined emotion. Confliction. Mute narrowed his eyes at the offending girl, who growled and left. Ruby looked at the boy weirdly. "One of your friends, sis?" She asked.

Mute was going to inform her in his own way that he did not know for certain, but Yang had her arm around his shoulders again. "Yep!" She exclaimed, "We're officially besties!" Mute could only blink and wonder what that new word meant. Apparently it had something to do with being friends, and this girl was beginning to cause his shoulders to ache, even considering his physical durability.

He shot Ruby a look that said something along the lines of " _help."_

She realized that he had tried to say that, and said: "Yang, I think you're crushing him."

"Whoops!" The girl released Mute, who quickly took a step back and nearly faded into the background. He then snapped to attention and looked at the stage before any other person in the crowd as he sensed Ozpin approaching.

"Your friend has good ears," Ruby commented as they saw what Mute had been looking at.

"Yeah, he's awesome," Yang said. Then, Ozpin began his speech. With every person in the crowd paying attention, the man gave his version of a motivational speech and then informed the others of where to go next. Mute quickly realized he had learned all of this before and tuned it out. He elected to search Blake out in the crowd he stood in, only finding her near the end of it. She stood near the door with a book in her hand as she too waited for the speech to be over.

The boy tried to sneak away from Yang the moment the speech ended, but her hand landed on his shoulder. "C'mon," she said, walking with him. "We're off to the sleeping area."

Mute shot Blake the look that said " _help"_ like he had done with Ruby, but she wasn't looking his way, and the message never got there. The boy gave up after a few moments and turned to walk alongside the two girls, choosing to analyze the weapons used by the numerous students he would be surrounded by for his time here in Beacon. A collapsible staff, a fire sword, a set of blades that extended past the elbows from the wrists, and a large amount of weapons that also appeared to be guns, unlike Mute's own weapons.

He could not truly identify the gun that Ruby had strapped to her belt, as it looked like it was a collapsible weapon of some description. Yang's weapons were clearly compacted into those bracelets she wore, the golden color of which reminded him quite a bit of the golden girl named Magic.

Speaking, or rather, thinking of Yang, he noticed that aside from her eye color, she reminded him both of Magic, who had woken up, and someone else that he was certain he had seen before, someone whose faint memory was enough to make him twitch sometimes when looking at Yang's face.

" _But I look among you, and all I see is wasted energy"_ Mute remembered Ozpin saying. " _A need for purpose, direction."_

Mute looked back at the stage, but the gray-haired man was gone. "You ready for initiation, then?" Yang asked the boy as he stared off into space.

He looked back at her. Yes, he was ready. He was always combat ready.

"You ever take those boots off at all?" Ruby asked. He met her eyes next. No, he did not believe he ever took his weapons off. "Oh!" Ruby exclaimed "Those boots are your actual weapons? That's so cool!"

Mute looked at Yang. There was that word, 'cool' again. "Oh, no. It just means something like awesome or good, not the temperature meaning." Yang answered the question. Mute nodded and turned back to Ruby. He lifted his knee, and flicked his toes down, causing the two parallel sickle blades to emerge from the bottom of his boot. He then watched the girl absolutely squeal with delight, which surprised him until she brought her weapon around, and it expanded into a full on scythe with a similar shaped blade. "You have scythes!" She cheered happily.

Mute snapped his toes back up, sealing the blades away once more. He set his foot down with a **clank** , and proceeded to continue walking. Ruby went back to the topic of the headmaster. "It was almost like that guy wasn't even there." She commented.

"That's how he acted before I started dragging him along." Yang pointed to the boy who was walking away. "Think they're related?"

"Somehow, I doubt it," Ruby replied. "Hey, he's getting away."

"What? Get back here!" Yang exclaimed, running after the boy. Ruby giggled to herself as she watched her sister keep the guy in check, thinking about how Yang liked to get up close and personal with antisocial people and go about fixing that.

Many hours later, everything was fixed up for the night, with sleeping bags and the like. Ruby was writing on a piece of paper with a pen while Yang walked towards her with Mute in tow, as she was still keeping the boy around and talking to him about seemingly random things. He would look at people and hope for assistance, but that assistance was not provided.

"It's like a big slumber party!" Yang dropped down next to Ruby so powerfully Muse wondered if her shoulder was all right.

Mute saw Blake sitting down with her book nearby. He had a valid way to escape these two if he needed it.

"Not sure if dad would approve of all the boys, though," Ruby muttered. Mute tilted his head as he looked at the girl beneath him.

"I know I do." Yang gave out a noise Mute had never heard before, and the message of the words had him stepping back. Then Yang looked past Mute to the group of boys behind them doing various things, including 'vomit boy' as he looked at them. She gave an 'eww' sound at that and started asking what Ruby was doing.

"Aww, that's so cuuuute!" Yang teased loudly enough for Mute, who was spacing out, to catch. He then watched her get blasted back by a pillow, which did not seem to harm the girl much. He stared at Blake, seeing her eyes flicker towards the noise, and he caught her eye with his plead for help. Finally, she gestured towards him to come over by her. He felt more comfortable around the one who gave him his personal space.

He snuck past Yang as she discussed friends with Ruby. According to Yang, a negative friend was not physically possible. Mute filed that information away as he made it over to Blake, and copied her by sitting in a chair nearby.

"Holding up well?" Blake asked.

She learned that no, he was not doing well. And that he had spent most of the day confused, or scaring people he talked to enough that they gave him a lot of space. He was grateful for the space, but oddly uncomfortable, and he did not understand that discomfort.

"Hmm." Blake hummed as she looked back at her book for a moment. "I think you're going to have to get used to it now, considering that we are both going to be at this school for several years if all goes well."

Mute nodded and looked back. Yang had noticed the blinking white outline where Mute had been and was looking about for him while Ruby's eyes found Blake, and she stared. She said something to her sister, who saw both Mute and Blake, and quickly moved to get to them, Yang dragging Ruby along the way.

Blake became distracted by the sounds of Ruby struggling, lowering her book just enough to see Yang approaching in her tight shirt and long pants. "Hello~" Yang exclaimed in greeting. "I believe you two may know each other?"

Despite Mute's understanding of the girls passing on to her, she had to ask: "Aren't you the girl that exploded?"

"Er… That's me." Ruby replied awkwardly, and extended her hand. My name's Ruby, but… Uh… You can just call me crater… Face…" Ruby trailed off, shaking her head at herself. Blake said nothing for the moment, unimpressed by the girl's attempt at icebreaking.

Mute was very attentive to the conversation. "So… What are you doing?" Ruby asked sheepishly.

"I was just reading this book," Blake told them.

They were as silent as Mute.

"Which I will… **Continue** to read."

More silence.

"As soon as you leave." Blake finished.

"Yeah, this girl's a lost cause." Yang decided, and turned away, but Ruby had other ideas.

"What's it about?"

Mute looked at Blake now, as the girl raised a brow. "The book, I mean." Ruby continued.

"...It's about a man with two souls." Blake explained, having a little warmer expression. "Each fighting for control over his body." Ruby nodded and smiled at the girl, who simply began reading her book again until the girls in front of her started getting more excited, and Yang grabbed Ruby's foot, and Ruby punched at her sister…

Mute watched the show unfold with his blank stare. The sisterly scuffle simply had no obvious malice, no reason to intervene. He, however, was the only one not saying anything. "Well, Ruby, Yang, it was nice to-" Blake started, but was cut off.

"What on earth is going on here!? People are trying to sleep!"

Weiss had managed to sneak up on the lot of them, and was shouting at the sisters. Yang gathered herself, chuckling, only for her eyes to meet Weiss' eyes. "Oh not you again!" Both girls shouted at each other, already tense.

Mute sweatdropped while Ruby cut them off. "Wait guys she's right. People are trying to sleep."

Weiss, however, was not having the assistance provided by Ruby. "Oh, **now** you're on my side."

Ruby couldn't let that go without comment. "I was always on your side!" She insisted.

"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister?" Yang asked angrily. Mute glanced at Blake, seeing that she had the candles in her hand, and he realized what she was going to do. The boy gave her a nod and closed his eyes, reclining in the comfortable chair. "She's only trying to be nice!"

"She's a hazard to my health!" Weiss refuted.

Blake blew out the candles.

* * *

" _Tomorrow, your initiation begins."_

The echo of the memory brought his eyes open slowly. He still sat in the chair, reclined somewhat. He felt rested for the most part, perhaps aching a bit. Not as bad as seeing his vision filled with blond hair. He nearly slashed Yang's throat out immediately, his legs twitching again. Every time she showed up, he found himself instinctively aching to take a swing at her. Confusion. Bafflement. Somewhat tired.

"Big day," Yang said, grabbing Mute's hand uninvited and pulling him to his boots. "Get up and face it with a smile!"

" _This girl's presence is terrible for my health."_ Mute thought. Then, he realized that he had been meeting Yang's eyes. The girl laughed as she got his message. "Maybe." She said, pulling him along "But you can't just sit around doing nothing all the time."

The girl was not insulted? Would relief be an appropriate emotion?

"Here are the locations that each group goes for initiation." Blake handed him a list, before handing a list to Yang and Ruby respectively. Weiss was nowhere to be found. "I believe they put you two together because you are siblings." Blake continued, pointing to the two girls on one line of pictures. That same line contained Weiss. "The people in most of the lines were scrambled when they had to add some people to the roster that merely took a test rather than transfer from a school. I believe they tried to match up people who would make excellent teams together in most cases based on their initiation rules, of which I am not aware of at this time."

Ruby had swirls in her eyes from trying to process all of that. "Wow," Yang said after a moment. "You really know how to make a speech."

Mute searched his list. He found himself, seeing Blake in his initiation group. He turned the page and tapped it, notifying the others.

"Awww…" Ruby muttered when she saw it. "Neither of you are going to be on our team?"

"We don't know if that is going to be how they do it, to be honest," Blake said, after sparing Mute a quick look. "Ren and Nora have been kept together as well. On our roster."

Ruby showed her list, revealing that her initiation also contained the Pyrrha girl that Mute had met, and the boy named Cardin. Mute informed the girls of his impressions of each of the two. "Yuck. Avoiding Cardin." Yang muttered. "He sounds like one of those people who's full of themselves."

"Pyrrha seems nice, though," Ruby noted. "Hey, there's Jaune. He's in a totally different initiation from any of us. He's nice. I hope he finds good teammates."

Mute stood up. It was about time to head off anyhow. Yang waved him goodbye as he started to walk away with his list in his hand, and both Yang and Ruby turned to say goodbye to Blake. The black-haired girl was replaced by air, and both looked about in confusion until they realized that Blake had managed to join Mute as he walked without their knowledge.

"Welp." Yang shrugged. "We'll see them later. Let's get ready."

"Yeah!" Ruby exclaimed.

Mute waited with Blake while the girl rummaged in the locker she had. The turquoise-eyed boy had not bothered to use his locker at all, instead having kept his weapons on his feet where they belonged. He asked her why she would part with her weapon at any time.

After Blake met his eyes and was thereby questioned, she closed her eyes. "My blades are not exactly clothing." She explained, "And without weapons, meeting people has less chance to turn ugly, I suppose." She looked him in the eye. "Nobody was going to ask you to take your shoes off for the night. It was pretty clear how attached you are to those things."

Mute agreed and looked over towards some others nearby. He saw the girl, Nora, and the boy, Ren. He identified them based on their pictures in the roster curled up in his hand. "Nora?" Ren asked in a very quiet voice.

"Yes Ren?"

"...I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."

Mute filed the information away. Could be important. Why else would they be talking about it?

"...That's why it's **perfect**!" Nora exclaimed, "Nobody will suspect that we're working together!"

Mute blinked. Now he was confused. He turned to Blake for explanation, but she merely shrugged and went about her business with Mute hesitating before following behind. Their trip eventually took them to an airship.

"Well," Blake commented as she looked at the smaller ship. "We don't have Vomit Boy on our trip."

He pointed out that Ruby seemed to think 'Jaune' was actually quite nice. Blake tilted her head in acknowledgment before both boarded the airship along with the people they would be taking initiation with. How fast the days have flown by. Almost as if they barely happened at all. Mute looked out the window at Beacon, still wondering if the place truly meant anything to him. So far, he had stood around, been confused many, many times, and after that, the only one he still actually knew properly was Blake, and perhaps Yang. Yang herself worried him for a reason he could not identify. He kept nearly attacking when she drew close. Something had to be done about his nearly violent response to the mere sight of the girl.

Mute found himself viewing the city once more. Rather than marveling, he was memorizing streets and landmarks as they passed. The complex city that the school was above held many interesting and unique buildings to analyze and remember. Blake did not reprimand this excessive attentiveness, as she knew from the five or so days she had known him that Mute would not ease up from just a little pleading.

There was something almost **mechanical** about the boy. Something that reminded Blake of a robot. The way his movements were very automatic and robotic. And at the same time, he clearly wasn't a robot of any sort. The boy had a semblance, after all, to transmit what he needs to say via eye contact, which went rather well with his inability to speak. Or perhaps, Blake began to wonder, his semblance and his inability to speak were related. Could one cause the other to occur? She was uncertain.

However, the two soon found that they had lost track of time and as Mute informed Blake that the plane seemed to be arriving at its destination. Mute had been asking himself questions for half an hour, such as who he had been back before he had been taken away and supposedly healed. If his brain was unable to process things properly as the odd Gold lady said, why would he have anything to remember?

He made a connection. The golden girl said that he could remember his target… And Yang's presence kept on making him twitch with familiarity… Had Yang been his target? Was that why he kept almost attacking when she drew close? He frowned deeply. Everything seemed more orderly than before, but even then, it seemed a bit scrambled. Yang had been… Suffocating to be around in his position, but he would not directly attack her… Right?

The boy then followed Blake out of the airship and found himself on the edge of a mesa high overlooking a forest. Mute searched the forest with his intent glare, seeing things shifting in the trees and clearings. He searched the faces of the others, and only Ren seemed to be seeing everything he was, and Blake was not far behind the both of them.

The other initiates began standing on platforms before professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon. Mute met his eyes, aware that the man had not been on the airship. He forced a thought at Ozpin, asking how the man had gotten here.

The man pointedly ignored him for the moment and began his next obviously pre-prepared speech. Speaking of going down into the forest and obtaining one of the relics in some 'old temple'. Mute was not impressed by the theatrics, but then the time came to pay attention. "Some of you have been interested in the formulation of teams. Allow me to settle some of this confusion." Ozpin declared. "Each of you will be given teammates. **Today**."

Mute and Ren nodded in acceptance. Nora gave Ren a bright smile. Blake found there was only one person to turn to, that being Mute, as he was the only one she had spoken to directly in this group so far.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon." Ozpin continued "So it is best to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

Mute nodded again.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Mute blinked. That didn't sound like the most reasonable way to forge a team, but what did he know?

"Are there any questions?"

Mute fixed the man with a hard stare. Yes, he had questions. He had questions based on a lot of things.

"Good!" Ozpin ignored the assault of questions Mute leveled at him through eye contact. Then, to Mute's left, students began being launched off of the platforms they had and were being thrown into the forest. They were prepared with landing strategies. Was Mute?

He looked at the people being launched, knowing his weapons were heavier than theirs were, so he predicted that he would land in a certain area of the forest. He met Blake's eyes, and the girl nodded to him before she went sailing into the forest quite further than Mute would be. He would have to put effort into meeting her first.

Nora and Ren were quickly launched, and Mute saw Ren aiming for the trees even as he flew upwards. Mute gave Ozpin a stern glare for keeping information from him before he was suddenly shot into the sky by the platform he stood on. He twisted in mid-air to see the headmaster drink from his coffee as he watched the boy. Despite not knowing what Coffee was, Mute still somehow felt slightly offended by the uncaring nature the man put into his efforts.

Then he was falling through the sky, dropping towards the ground. He angled himself, seeing the tree he was going to sail past, and gathering a decent idea out of it.

With a flick of his ankle, he extended the sickle blades on his left foot, before snagging a thick enough branch with them and spinning towards the trunk of the tree. He twisted so that his back was downwards, seeing that he still had plenty of downwards momentum, and slammed the sickle blades of both boots into the tree trunk. The impact was slightly jarring, but he grinded all the way down to a meter above the ground with his boots tearing up the tree he slid down.

The boy swiftly bought his blades back in as he reached backward and upside down to catch the ground and then spring from his hands to his feet. Despite the torn apart tree, along with the branch that fell directly to his right of him, the landing had been textbook.

Mute recognized he was facing the wrong direction, using the mesa as a vantage point. He assumed that forward was the correct way to go. Unaware that his boots were making quite the racket as the boy walked, he closed his eyes, intending to open them when he found Blake, who he felt he could trust.

He walked on for ten minutes. The warning that he might die from earlier rang in his ears, but he paid no outward attention to it. He was unaware of such a threat. He was aware that he could handle what came his way. Thus, when he heard growling from behind him, he slashed without bothering to look at first.

He turned and looked upwards, seeing a now gutted bear-like creature with bone structures protruding from its back. The grotesque dark creature grunted from the deep wound but prepared to attack anyhow. Mute slammed the bottom of his boot into the chest of the creature and sent it flying many meters away, as well as unleashing a loud flash of darkness.

 **Bwoof!**

Mute looked at his boot, which hummed with the energy that the beast had exuded. He recalled the use of this metal, and dismissed it. It was hardly worth thinking about until it was relevant. He flicked his foot and expelled the remaining energy in what seemed to be a teardrop-shaped blast that had apparently pierced the beast he had kicked badly.

He inspected the bearlike creature. It had a large hole in its chest from Mute's boot unleashing its own power against it. It's red eyes had dimmed, and he could see it start to break into small floating pieces that disintegrated over time. Mute wondered if this was how every creature he destroyed would react once dead.

He then discovered that these things tend to hunt in packs occasionally, if not all the time. Mute really had no concept of pack hunting, so to him, it was merely a coincidence that so many had just shown up around him at once. These were smaller, with fewer bone structures from their backs. They had less of a dark aura as well. To achieve the same energy in his boot, he would have to be closer to them longer. Unless…

Mute stepped back and neared his boots to the disintegrating beast, watching the energy soak into his boots excessively. The weapons seemed not to be affected by the continuing level of energy. With a little bit of this energy, he could do enough damage to put a hole straight through the large beast. With continual addition of energy, he had more than enough to do far worse to this horde of bear creatures.

They started to trundle forward three or so at a time, likely because they couldn't fit more. Each met a single blast to the chest and died, falling to the ground. Their disintegrating bodies released enough dark energy to soak into Mute's boots even more. The last bear got a dose so large as Mute put extra effort into the strike that Mute used up half the energy in that boot and the bear was completely disintegrated, as was the tops of the trees around it in one flare.

The energy these creatures had was clearly worth quite a bit. Very clearly, if the beasts themselves actually used the energy they seemed to be built from, they would do far more damage. And yet they did not. This implied the stupidity of these animals, the fact that they were basic instinct to kill alone.

And Mute wondered what exactly they were supposed to be.

After realizing that he had gathered quite a bit of energy in his boots, he walked on casually, his boots jet black instead of white and releasing an illusionary black flame from them. The boy looked at the grass beneath him, seeing the blades slightly cling to the metal. The grass was not doing enough to slow him any, so he walked on again.

Five minutes later, he was annoyed as he stood among a pile of disintegrating bodies again. This time, they were more wolf-like, although they were essentially bipedal until they crouched down before lunging. Unimpressed, yet irritated at the frequency of attacks, Mute strode away with even more energy in his boots.

Five minutes later, Mute's brow was furrowed. Why on earth was this damn bird attacking him? It was particularly large, and Mute was forced to deflect feather projectiles. However, the bird's neck was small enough to be slashed right off by his boots.

Five minutes later, Mute was thoroughly pissed off as he didn't even bother killing the last beast, one of the wolf things, that seemed to be already disintegrating. It turned out that one of the spikes from the bears had flown straight through its body when Mute kicked it off. Mute didn't care, not bothering to watch it topple over.

How many damn creatures were in this forest?

He leapt up to a branch with ease and looked out over the forest. The 'ruins' were a few minutes walk away. Mute almost jumped back down when he sensed a presence. He turned and shot a glare, beginning to expect dark creatures, but Blake herself relaxed a tree away. Both of their eyes met.

It is dangerous here, Mute told her with his eyes. Dark creatures. They attack constantly.

Blake raised an eyebrow, and jumped over to him. "How exactly is it that you don't know what the Grimm are?"

Mute did not react in any way. Blake narrowed her eyes. "Even the grimm are lost to your memory?" She asked. He nodded, and she sighed. "You seem to be handling yourself just fine." She commented. She looked at his boots, and that was when she backed up.

Mute informed her that the dark energy from the monsters was building up in the metal of his boots and that he could use it to attack them back. Blake looked at him with her eyes wide. Never before had the girl seen a metal do this aside from Adam's blade, and even then Adam used his semblance to achieve it.

"That certainly explains why I haven't seen a single grimm all day." She commented, "They're all flocking to you because you're giving off a lot of energy that grimm do, and they generally make packs by sensing similar energy to their own and flocking to it."

Mute looked down at his boots. He was being attacked because he had all of this energy? Blake soon learned that the boy could dispel the energy though it seemed quite volatile when he used it.

"Then try to waste it when you can," Blake ordered, to which Mute nodded. Blake jumped out of her tree, and Mute made to follow her, his boots clattering and completely negating any stealth Blake used. She paid close attention to the fact that his boots seemed not to have changed much despite the aura they gave off.

Both the girl and boy landed smoothly, although Mute sank two inches into the mud. In unison, they looked up at the damaged building that resembled a shrine of sorts. Carefully built to look ruined, sitting in the middle of a clearing that seemed too perfect. Not circular, but certainly oval, with a large branch of plains off to one side.

Mute frowned at the sight of the relics. They seemed small, made of different colors, white or black. Blake could easily see them from this point as well. Both walked forward as casually as they could to avoid alerting nearby grimm that might be sensitive to sound and little else. "...Chess pieces?" Blake asked a little incredulously at the sight of the relics. Talk about removing the concept of the legitimate adventure right at the end.

Mute supposed they were supposed to take one. He met Blake's eyes, and both realized at the same moment that neither of the two of them actually gave a shit about which piece to take, so Blake grabbed the white rook piece from the podium without actually looking.

Both were about to leave before they were startled by an explosion. The two bristled before turning right around to find a bear grimm's back emitting a hot pink burst of energy before it collapsed dead on the ground, with Nora tumbling off of it. "Aww… It's broken." She whined, getting up and looking at the beast.

"Nora, please." Ren was stumbling away from the creature. "Don't ever do that again."

But Mute and Blake followed Ren in blinking confusedly. It was almost as if the girl had straight up **vanished** or something, and then Mute heard her say 'oooh' much closer to him than he would have liked.

The boy leaped away on impulse while he saw the mad pink girl dancing around with a white rook piece on her head. "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" She sang.

" **Nora!** "

She stopped suddenly. "Coming Ren!" She exclaimed, letting the chess piece fall into her hands before she jumped over to where Ren had managed to Join mute in both of their quiet stances.

"I'm surprised you found that bear in the first place, with Mute exterminating everything in the forest," Blake spoke up, prompting the others to look at Mute with impressed looks. "When Mute was informing me of what kept attacking him, it seems that they were just beowolves and ursas, but…"

"So we're fine because everything's been attacking you." Ren summed up. Mute tilted his head for a moment in acknowledgment.

"Well, nothing is going to sneak up on us in the middle of the plains." Blake said "We may get a breather. Or swarmed. Whichever."

"Speaking of swarmed, it would probably be best to get out of here. We just have to return to the top of the cliff, yes?" Ren asked.

"Yeah! We've totally got to get up there and stuff!" Nora exclaimed with her fist in the air.

Mute's eyes widened a fraction of an inch, instantly alerting Blake. She knew the kid was super sensitive to the presence of things for some reason, so she turned the direction he was turning. Everybody stepped back beside Mute, who stared at the massive bird almost expressionlessly.

Blake understood when he turned to her. She had told him to get rid of all of that energy in his boots. But both detected a lot more activity, and everyone discovered that grimm were moving out of the forest in many directions.

"Swarmed." Ren decided, preparing his weapons.

"I think Mr. Boot Blade over here is going after the big bad bird," Nora commented. Mute shot her a look that ultimately said: 'boot blade? Really?' Before he started sprinting towards the bird on his own.

The others would be defending themselves, this he knew. He knew how to use his weapons, as if it was an innate knowledge that he could call on. This energy was at his command after he absorbed so much of it.

Like one-moment rocket boosters, the dark energy flared at Mute's boots and sent him skyward. He began using them like actual rocket boots, uncaring how much energy he used in the process.

The bird brought back its massive wings, and the nevermore unleashed a torrent of feathers at the boy. Mute, however, had little trouble flying past the feathers and slamming his feet into the head of the beast.

And then he called upon every last bit of grimm energy stored in his boots and unleashed an incredible flare of dark power, obliterating the head and base of the wings of the massive beast, blasting Mute straight back to the main group, where he skidded calmly to a stop. His boots, now depleted, reflected the sun's glare once more in their white color.

"That. Was. Awesome." Nora said in her version of awe.

"That's one way to use up all the energy you got." Blake acknowledged, and then the grimm began swarming them.

Nora unclipped her grenade launcher from her back and started blowing beowolves to smithereens on one side while Ren easily distracted the ursas around the area with quick and simple strikes with his blades, using the odd green energy that his automatic handguns fired to irritate the ursas and outright kill a few small beowolves.

Blake joined Mute in his attack on their half of the beasts. Blake's shadow trick allowed her to avoid dozens of strikes and attack the enemies at critical points easily. Mute took the opposite approach to dodging. He outright attacked and took apart each enemy he came across, the sickle blades concealed in his boots flashing out and in over and over as he spun on his hands and did flips, delivering fast and powerful swipes to his opponent's. The odd white metal of his boots sliced easily through the hides of the ursas and beowolves that attacked him.

Every time he killed a grimm, he would use some of that energy to send himself flying over to the next target using the burst of grimm energy. Blake slashed the beowolves down the middle. Ren's gunshots seemed to do significant damage to the remaining beowolves, and once everybody was done kicking ass, they turned to watch Nora casually squish a final grimm's head with her hammer, ending the battle.

Nora's destructive force had complimented the speed and grace of Ren and Blake, who matched each other in speed but differing in fighting styles. Both would have to decide how best to work together in their battling.

Mute, as the rest of the group seemed to be aware of now, seemed to be in a class of his own. The elite in his group. Even with his relatively short range, his learning curve of utilizing those flashes of absorbed energy was skyrocketing.

"Let's get moving." Blake decided, and everybody quickly agreed.

Even as they left, Mute detected another pair of people coming into the clearing just as they disappeared into the forest.

The four of them ran alongside each other, sprinting in sync as if they had been doing it for years. Mute paid attention to the fact that Nora seemed to have little difficulty keeping up with the group, despite her seeming affiliation towards sheer strength. Because they were running rather than walking, they arrived at their destination in roughly ten minutes.

They found a set of odd boar-like grimm with long, curved tusks. Just beneath the cliff. Behind them rested a big scorpion thing. They all looked at the group at once.

"Boarbatusks" Ren identified the creatures. Mute braced himself, in time to see one of the three things suddenly start spinning incredibly quickly and rolling straight at him like a bladed ball of death. Mute kicked it away, his blades flashing.

The boar was sent sailing into a tree, but appeared mostly unharmed, to Mute's surprise. Its tusks had been slashed off, however. He frowned.

He met everybody's eyes, and they knew he would be going after the giant scorpion instead. The trio nodded and prepared themselves to handle the different boarbatusks. Mute elected to ignore those grimm, knowing immediately that the monsters would be destroyed. He dashed past the charging boars and sprinted straight for the scorpion. Seeing that it had a white mask of sorts on, he judged it's weak points. He narrowed his eyes as he approached, realizing this was going to be a one and done deal.

He struck the ground right in front of the scorpion as it tried to attack him, and leaped straight up with his boot flashing from the side. The stinger was instantly severed and slammed into the odd mask built into the creature's head, before whirling and slamming his heel into it with as much force as he could muster, impaling the creature's brain and killing it. Mute used the energy he had managed together to rocket himself away from the beast, landing in the center of his friends with his boots white once more. He reckoned that had been rather easy to accomplish compared to what the others might have been expecting.

He turned to his right to see a boarbatusk with Ren's blades stuck through its belly, immobile. He turned to his left to see a disintegrating boarbatusk with Blake standing nearby. He heard a detonation behind him and a flash of pink, and knew that Nora was done with her battle.

Ren turned to the group. "Let's get to the top of this cliff." He said.

* * *

"Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, and Weiss Schnee…"

Mute stood in his place in line next to his new teammates, already informed of how things would turn out. Informed of his teammates, which was something he had come to expect after that day. Apparently paperwork had to be done, and Mute had approached Ozpin with questions in mind.

* * *

 _Ozpin had been doing some paperwork in his room, drinking his favorite type of coffee when Mute stepped into the room, seeming not to care of how loudly his boots clanked onto the surface of the floor._

 _Ozpin looked up, raising an eyebrow calmly. He was informed quickly that Mute was not entirely satisfied with the headmaster's blatant disregard of the many questions he had. Questions including why the rosters for the initiation times and places were scrambled._

" _I suppose you have earned some honesty." Ozpin nodded calmly. "Very well. I had fully expected and planned for Blake to appear in this school, and had planned my rosters accordingly. My rules, everything, was designed to match the students I knew would be approaching this school for this year."_

 _Ozpin knew Mute understood by the thought reaching him. He knew that Mute was thinking that he had not been expected. Ozpin was further informed about the golden girl who had called herself Magic who had woken the boy up._

 _Ozpin frowned as he looked at the boy, but did not say much for a while._

 _Mute recognized that because of his appearance, Ozpin had to change drastically to make the teams fit better with his presence, and because of the fact that he had appeared mere days before everything started up, the headmaster could not manipulate the placement of students to fit better. Therefore, it would be more difficult._

 _Why, Mute wondered, was there such haste in making these teams fit better? Was the man expecting something to happen so incredibly soon? He narrowed his eyes at the headmaster, deciding not to directly ask, as it could make Ozpin wary of him._

 _Thus, he turned and left without a word._

* * *

"Led by… Ruby." Ozpin continued. People cheered, as the girls around the younger student congratulated her. Mute noticed that Weiss was more hesitant about congratulating Ruby about her leadership.

Before he could think about that much, his group began walking towards the stairs to the stage.

"...Blake Belladonna, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Mute." Ozpin spoke, introducing the students now on the stage. Mute wore a suit, which apparently was a 'uniform.' It was hard for him to concentrate on what he wanted to do because it felt uncomfortable, as if he had never worn one before. Still, he looked at Ozpin as he spoke to the crowd, seeing the gray-haired man shift almost in an almost indiscernible manner. Ozpin was uncomfortable with his presence. He wasn't planned, wasn't supposed to be here. He was a volatile variable in Ozpin's plan, which at least seemed to be laced with good intentions to Mute's knowledge.

Essentially, Mute had a lot of weight about to bear down on him and he knew it. He might have to get on Ozpin's good side…

"Led by… Lie Ren." Ozpin decided.

Everyone cheered while Mute continued thinking. He would have to build Ozpin's trust in him and then proceed to assist in the plan the man had, if the man's intent was indeed in the best interest of other people.

Values. Emotions. Calculations. Plans. Mute frowned. Every last thing he was feeling felt very new to him. Even so, Yang seemed to think feelings should be followed, Blake and Ren's skills helped Mute see that planning and calculating was important, and Ruby herself, that little girl, had quite a bit of emotion erupting from her at all times. She was extremely expressive, and Mute recognized that this seemed to easily connect her to other people in positive ways, aside from Weiss of course.

Mute nodded over to Ren, while Nora hummed happily and bumped shoulders with the boy. Blake gave her own nod of recognition. Smiles were shared around the group, and Mute saw this expression. Should he be smiling?

Nora met his eyes long enough to catch that question, although Mute did not realize he had asked. The girl elbowed him with her bright smile. He decided, ultimately, to comply. He bought his lips upwards in a smile not unlike the small smile Ren had on his face.

Inwardly, it felt very odd to do so. It was almost difficult, as if he had rarely if ever smiled before. Looking out over the crowd, the boy recognized that these people would be the people he was around for a long time. He quickly realized that things could get complicated quick, and his smile faded as he looked out over the group.

Values? What values did he have?

Emotions? He did not feel much in that sense. They were too new for him.

Calculations? He calculated everything, but only in the sense of victory. Was there more?

Plans? He knew that his skills lay in battle, and his plans did not go much further than how exactly to destroy the creature in front of him with the utmost skill and power.

He breathed out slowly through his nose. This would not be easy.

* * *

 **Well, well. Magic's back, and her shenanigans have opened up the world of Remnant to me as an author. I owe her a thank-you. I have high hopes about this story. I will certainly continue it, although the rate at which it updates will likely not follow the pattern of the three main stories that I am currently keeping updating, New Age, TAC2, and KatJ. Those stories will likely be updated more often.**

 **By the way, sorry Jaune fans. I happen to not be the biggest Jaune fan. He will be around, of course. I'm not going to completely ditch him as a character. You might have noticed I totally switched some team alignments around. Yes, I did. I did indeed, and I felt like it could work if I play my cards right, and I have a good hand.**

 **The title might have given the character that changed everything away, but for those who I managed to surprise, I hope it gets the gears turning about what's up with this and what could possibly have led to Mute being here. I will do my best to avoid spoiling it and such, although subtle hints I'm capable of. Look alive, cause you might miss them.**

 **Please tell me what you think. I am aware that I am bringing this story to an entirely separate fanbase with this story, but I am confident that that will matter little when it comes to my readers enjoying the story itself. I hope you had fun reading this first chapter, please review and give me your first impressions. Thank you all, and have a nice day.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, one and all!**

 **Jango: Hah! In true me form, Hyper's decided to leave you loyal readers hanging on the cliff of the end of the last KatJ chapter for another while and let you think about it and anticipate it longer! So instead, he gives you Silent Chapter Two. Not that I'm complaining, heck no.**

 **Me: He is absolutely correct. I was struck by this sense of... Something. Made me want to make you guys wait more for KatJ. Must have been a side effect of the cliffhanger. Anyways, this is chapter two, so let's handle the first reviews of Silent.**

 **Hey, these guys are definitely different from some of the ones who regularly review my other stories. Hi, hello. TheWick, Mute's power is based on his power in New Age. I will attempt to establish limitations, but it is true that i did send a particularly capable fighter into the mix. I hope I can humanize him a little more as the story moves forward.**

 **Hey, West. Yes, Mute is intended to be mysterious. I... Don't know about that quote, but yes. His eye-contact communication will provide a challenge of sorts.**

 **And Azariah Kyres. There are many complications with his different method of speech. Think, for a moment, what would happen if he got separated from his team by a wall and was in trouble. There are advantages and disadvantages to this new form of communication. I also can't change the semblance now; I've already started the story, and honestly, his semblance does in fact build upon and develop his character, or it can. It has quite the potential in my eyes. Besides, his boots already have the absorbing/releasing technique that he uses in combat to make his fighting more versatile. His semblance doesn't have to do that on the side, in my opinion. I hope that answers your concerns and alleviates them.**

 **Okay. that's a great start to the story with honest reviews such as these. Read on, people. Have a nice day.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

This was school, apparently.

Mute had no way to recognize most of the things he saw unless someone explained it to him. He had been told of classrooms, and not of the dorms set for the teams. Despite the familiarity, Mute was left to believe that this dorm-looking place was indeed a classroom.

"This is our dorm," Blake told him after a few minutes, seeing him look around confusedly. She had an easy time understanding him even when he sent no messages, oddly enough.

Mute's expression cleared of confusion and he nodded. The other three around him seemed to be putting things in the packs they carried away in their personal stuff. Bookshelves and beds were already there, and the space everyone had would be less of an issue because Mute had no personal items at all.

He stood around without much to do until Ren asked for him to help move the beds. He noted that Nora had somehow gotten her bed in place herself when his back was turned. That girl kept managing things without appearing in his range of hearing and sight and intuition. He and Ren started moving Blake's bed where the girl was directing the two of them as they did so. When the boys had gotten it right, Blake nodded to them and gestured for Mute to help her with Ren's bed.

When Ren confirmed that his bed was in an acceptable place, Mute automatically moved over to one of the sides of his own bed to move it.

"Mute, what we were doing was allowing the owner of the bed to give the area a critical eye when the bed is being moved, so they can say if it's in the right place," Blake explained after both she and Ren watched him wait for them for five seconds.

Mute felt a burst of some odd emotion in his chest. It didn't feel good. It caused his face to heat up somewhat. Not enough to be noticeable from the outside, but he still felt that was something he could do without. The boy obediently stepped to the position where he should have gone and tried to think about which position would be the best for his bed. Considering he had nothing with the exception of a table besides the bed, he reckoned it would be best to take some leg room there and use his bed like a chair in case he needed the table for something. He directed his two quiet teammates through eye contact, which was proving to be far more efficient than actually speaking.

It occurred to Mute that as long as he wasn't separated by a wall, he could communicate even better than the others.

"Understandable." Ren nodded as Mute pointed this out. "As a team, we should strive to stay in more open areas so that Mute can talk to us."

"Got it." Blake went back to putting books away. Mute watched her panic as she pulled out a certain book and looked around, seeing that Ren and Nora had their backs turned. Mute expressed his confusion, and Blake sighed with relief instead of answering.

Mute narrowed his eyes. He would have to sneak a look at that book and discover what it was and what secrets it held. Blake was hiding something.

Considering she slipped it deep into the bookshelf so that the larger books might make it appear as if it was almost entirely hidden. Certainly suspicious. Mute made certain not to have his accusatory expression on when Blake turned back around, not intending to alert her that he understood something was up.

The boy pressed his hand against the bed. It felt like it would support him better than the last one at least. Just by a little bit. He nodded and turned to Nora…

Nora wasn't in the room.

Mute tilted his head while he heard Ren sigh behind him. "She'll be back." He assured Mute and Blake. "I know her."

Mute wanted to know why she would just disappear. "Any number of reasons." Ren responded "She can be… Difficult."

Mute realized that this boy was their best chance of understanding Nora to some extent.

Blake started getting out books and notebooks now. "We need to get Mute some supplies." She said, getting down to business. Mute wondered where Blake herself had gotten materials like that, as she had not had them when he met her on that train.

He wondered now if he needed to ask her what she was doing on that train in the first place. She had not told him very much about her. Neither had communicated too much since she found him at first, just led him here. He had some difficulty recognizing the kindness that must go into doing so for someone she hadn't met before at all. And yet, it gave him another one of those emotion-things that he could not understand. Not uncomfortable in the slightest, however.

Yes, Blake was a very complicated person that Mute could not fully understand. He decided that whatever possibly nefarious secrets that small book held, he would try to understand her anyhow.

Mute informed the two that he could look for Ozpin to request some materials, and Ren shook his head. "That won't be necessary." He assured Mute "There is a place on the campus to get school materials, along with stores for ammunition and materials to repair or create weapons."

Mute nodded, but then tilted his head, meeting Ren's eyes.

"I read this." Ren held up his scroll. He traced his finger along the screen, bringing up a list. "We all received one. I am… Not the only one to have read it, right?"

"...I was going to get to it." Blake mumbled as Mute brought out his own scroll, confusion written on his face. Ren sighed and facepalmed, betting that Nora had not read it either. Mute found the directory in his scroll and read through the places listed, classroom locations, store locations, sparring gym locations, as well as regular gym locations. He nodded and put the item away, turning towards the door.

"Please keep an eye out for Nora." Ren requested. Mute turned to give a nod, before he was out of the door.

Mute passed a door on his way out, hearing a shocking amount of noise from the other room. There seemed to be devices and exclamations and callouts from within the room. They sounded like the girl Ruby, and Yang. Those two were likely the ones calling out. Mute blinked as he heard some crashing and an 'aww…' from Ruby as something apparently fell. Mute blinked, and leaned away from the door somewhat.

Around the time he started walking away, An argument took place.

"You complete dolt!" Weiss exclaimed, "This is why you don't support bunk beds with spare **books**!"

"I only did it for that one leg…" Ruby muttered sheepishly.

"I got it." Yang lifted the bed easily and held it up in position again.

"Would it not be easier to acquire some lumber… Anywhere?" Pyrrha asked.

"Easier." Yang agreed "but not as exciting."

"Ah." Pyrrha nodded, taking the reasoning in stride.

"I know!" Ruby exclaimed, and Weiss sighed in advance as Ruby moved over through their particularly crowded room and procured a thermos that was in their stuff for whatever reason. It had a flat top and bottom. "And with this, we won't have to sacrifice a bunch of perfectly good books!"

"That looks even more unstable than the-" Weiss was cut short by Ruby bolting over with a flash of rose petals to set the perfectly sized and incredibly convenient-slash-inconvenient thermos thing between the first bed and the second. Yang cheerfully let it settle, happily discovering that the bed was perfectly level.

"Very convenient," Pyrrha commented. "Almost as if it was made for it."

"Where on earth did you even get that?" Weiss asked.

"I dunno," Ruby admitted, shrugging. "It was just in this pile of stuff here."

"Almost **too** convenient," Weiss muttered, looking at the thermos as if it might be holding a bunch of miniature grimm or something.

"Anyways~" Yang spoke up "We'd better get ready for classes and all, right?"

"Classes start at Nine in the morning." Ruby read from a printed schedule tucked in one of the binders she had on her.

Weiss stilled. "Nine o'clock!?" She asked.

"Yeah. Why?" Ruby asked.

"It's eight fifty-five you dunce!" She exclaimed.

Blake heard the door burst open across the hall, and she quickly peeked out along with her teammates. She saw Ruby's team peeking out from the door along with the rest of her team as well, and all seven stared down the hallways.

And seven voices cried out at once:

"We're gonna be late!"

* * *

Mute was taking notes. Having acquired some materials, the boy had quickly gathered them and walked into his first class. The turquoise-eyed boy gazed intently at the instructor, a gray-haired man with a mustache that stalked back and forth while speaking.

Mute's pencil flew across the paper as fast as the man spoke. He could not write every word the moment they were said, but he had learned after ten minutes that it would be more efficient to omit certain words to shorten how much he had to write, save space, and allow him to write down every last thing the man said.

Which was ultimately helpful, because this man talked **constantly**.

The man's many stories filled the pages of Mute's book even as the door burst open and a group of seven people rushed their way in. The girl in front tripped and suddenly all four were in a tangled heap on the ground nearby where the instructor stood. Professor port stopped for a while, giving Mute the opportunity to sharpen his pencil quickly.

Mute looked up once he was done, seeing the silent standoff between his professor and the seven people sprawled in a messy heap upon the ground. He recognized his teammates and Ruby's team as well. He watched them evenly, without pause. Ren managed to untangle himself from the pile of girls and step away, calmly brushing his uniform with his hands and doing his best to appear impassive.

Nora rolled off the top of the pile, landing on her feet and popping upright immediately. "Weeee're here!" she announced excitedly.

"Big sis, get off. You're too heavy…" Ruby groaned from the bottom of the pile. Yang complained about the implied insult but stood up without effort, which was impressive due to the fact that both Blake and Weiss had managed to land on top of her. Both girls were tossed off of her back when she stood. This allowed Ruby to get up as well, theatrically clutching her back.

Pyrrha had managed to avoid the chaos, having had enough reaction time to twist and roll to a stop next to the pile rather than in the middle of it, having winded up in a sitting position with her back leaned against the other girls. She too stood.

Once everybody was up, they noticed the class and Professor Port staring at the seven of them. "...I can see that." Port finally responded to Nora, who shot a brilliant grin at the old man. Five seconds later, Nora was hovering around Mute and looking at the many pages filled with words at his portion of the desk. Ren and Blake followed suit at a slower pace, leaving Ruby's team to listen to Port ask why they were late.

"They didn't clear out when they had the chance," Blake said evenly and quietly as she settled down on Mute's left. "A shame."

Mute nodded as he watched the girls look pleadingly at his team. He met Yang's eyes, feeling his leg twitch again, and he frowned at his desk for a moment. Then he returned his gaze to the group and loudly stomped his foot.

 **Clank**.

He had done so on the impulse that he didn't want the girls getting possibly unfairly questioned. Another new kind of thought for him to consider. He met the instructor's eyes as he attracted the man's attention, and explained mentally that both of the teams had become preoccupied putting their rooms together, and that he only arrived on time because he had gone to get supplies and was not aware that the remainder of the teams had forgotten. He was willing to accept responsibility.

Port was taken aback by the boy for numerous reasons, including the boy's willingness to take blame that did not really belong to him as well as his unique form of communication. "I can understand simple miscommunication." Professor Port decided "And as this is the first day, I can hardly be too frustrated with any latecomers that might have gotten lost or lost track of time." he turned to the girls. "I do expect **everyone** to be on time tomorrow." he continued frankly, and the girls frantically nodded and rushed to take seats near Ren's team, as Mute had managed to acquire a respectful amount of desk space apart from other students.

If Mute wasn't a close acquaintance to the girls, they might have felt the impulse to give the creepy silent kid his personal space as well. "Thanks for the save, whatever you said to him." Yang thanked Mute as she sat in the row behind him along with her team. Mute simply gave her a short nod, and turned back.

His filled pages were missing. Mute blinked, and looked around for them. Had they fallen? No, his teammates had nicked the notes and had begun to copy them. He noticed they were searching the notes and writing select things that seemed important. The boy blinked before he pulled a fresh sheet of paper out and set his pencil to it as Port began his soliloquy once more.

Ten minutes later, the girls and Ren had determined that this was an incredibly boring class. Mute was about to get his notes back as Blake and Ren and Nora had finished catching up by writing the hidden important parts in Mute's notes down when Ruby and Yang leaned forward and nicked the notes once again right before they reached Mute, and passed them out to their team while Mute gave them a glance that literally said: " _Really?"_

"Yes, really," Ruby whispered to him before poring over the good sixteen sheets that she held.

Mute felt a surge of an odd foreign emotion now, and he rolled his eyes and turned back to his writing. Perhaps Blake would be able to explain that one. Yang smiled as the boy showed an attitude he likely didn't understand fully. She figured he was making progress.

Twenty minutes later, Mute had a lot more pages of notes. Port didn't pipe down for a single moment, and all he was doing was telling stories about himself and his colleagues. Ruby had regressed to drawing poorly made caricatures of the man, and Blake, Pyrrha, Nora, Yang, and even Ren seemed to be losing interest properly. Weiss maintained her retention, only for that to fade twenty minutes after that.

By the end of the class, many of the girls had fallen asleep and The teammates who had remained awake were left with bleary eyes. The exception was Mute, with forty full pages of the massive speech Professor Port gave.

Ruby, awoken by some of the kids prematurely putting their things away, blearily shook her head. She looked left and right, seeing the clock and realizing class was was going to end, and noticed Jaune still asleep. Not wanting him to remain asleep while everybody left, she picked one of the fifteen and a half pictures she had drawn, one of professor Port, and she crumpled it into a ball and launched it at impressive speeds straight for Jaune's mess of hair while Port was turned away.

Jaune perked up after being struck, looking about with the paper managing to have stayed on his head. Ruby's friend shrugged and picked up his stuff, turning away while the paper ball fell off of his head. Ruby smiled. Disaster averted.

The group met just outside the room of the classroom, and Ren addressed all of them. "I think we should meet in the library during our free period," he announced. He got generally positive responses immediately, and continued: "Mute, you wrote literally everything down. That's helpful for today, and we could all use your notes if you'll let us copy the rest down, but you will use a lot less paper if you write the more important parts of what you hear."

Mute tilted his head. Was not everything important?

"I honestly can't say a majority of what he said was too helpful," Blake answered. "I believe the most important skill we can learn for this class is how to weed out the helpful and relevant pieces of information scattered among his personal stories and focus on them, write just those down."

"Yeah… It's hard to listen to, though." Yang yawned.

"I had trouble myself, but ultimately I found it easier to pay attention once I was searching for those little tidbits that actually mean something for what we should be doing as future huntresses." Weiss pointed out.

Mute and Ren looked at her.

"...And hunters." Weiss added, noticing the looks. "Anyways, we need to get to our next class."

"On the quintuple!" Ruby exclaimed, bolting off at speeds none of them could match.

"...Isn't it 'on the double'?" Ren asked.

"Nah, she's moving too fast for that. Let's go, everybody!" Yang walked after her sister.

"Woohoo!" Nora was gone, leaving the others blinking in surprise. Nora's speed was ridiculous as well, although there was something very different between Ruby's speed and Nora's speed.

"Nora!" Ren exclaimed, starting to run after her.

"She should at least check her map." Blake met Mute's eyes.

Mute figured she had done something like memorize it already. He wouldn't put it past the strange girl. Blake blinked in acknowledgment, before the both of them traveled in the same direction. This left Weiss and Pyrrha standing alone in the corridor.

"So…" Weiss trailed off quickly, wanting to say something but, blast those six, she had no material other than the typical 'what a bunch of dunderheads', which Pyrrha had seemed not to appreciate much the last time. Pyrrha, for her part, was waiting for Weiss to continue awkwardly. "...Never mind…" Weiss decided, walking forward. Pyrrha watched after the girl for a few moments, confused, but decided that getting to class would be more important.

* * *

Ruby stared. This guy was moving almost as fast as she could!

Professor Oobleck was zipping about the room at intense speeds as he looked each person in the eyes. "Students!" he exclaimed, and then launched into his lesson.

Mute's eyes widened. The man was changing topics too fast for him to take proper notes. Gritting his teeth, the boy wrote down what he could in a heroic display of writing speed, but he wasn't nearly fast enough, forced to abandon many of the things the man said to keep up.

Blake chose to listen to the man's words instead and attempt to memorize them. It seemed he was still explaining the class itself, though he was nearly done with that.

And now thirty seconds had passed.

This was going to be a long day.

"Mute, cut that out." Weiss hissed. "You're going to use up every page you have trying to write that all down!"

"It would be easier just to try and remember what he says at first…" Blake agreed slowly. Mute straightened, having been bent over his paper, and he blinked a few times before setting the very dull pencil down and staring at Oobleck, following the man with his eyes and trying now to simply listen and memorize.

"I think it's the coffee," Ruby whispered to her sister.

"Yyyep." Yang agreed. "Wonder if we'd be able to understand him if we stole it."

"Let's not get so hasty... until it really becomes a problem." Pyrrha murmured, wanting to avoid doing something negative yet admitting to herself that she did not have high optimism that she could grasp everything the man said if he continued speaking so quickly.

"Are there any questions?" Oobleck asked. A kid behind Ruby and Ren's teams, a girl by the name of Carla, raised her hand. "Yes, young lady?"

"Could you go over that again, but at a pace so that we can actually understand you?"

Silence for a moment, and Oobleck had the decency to appear somewhat embarrassed. "Of course," he said, his words still quick but at least comprehensible, and thanks to Carla, everybody was able to understand what was expected of them in class during the next several minutes. Mute discarded his messy, out of order notes and drew up new ones.

"So who's she?" Nora asked brightly.

"I dunno, but she's part of Jaune's team I think," Ruby responded quietly.

Mute turned his head, looking at the group of four. The girl, Carla, looked a bit worried and shy, which was odd, considering how she had spoken out before anyone else. Her hands carefully folded on the desk and her back was a touch bent. Her white hair reached down to the small of her back, and was curiously tipped with two inches of blue color, even as the hair spilled all across her back and shoulders. Jaune's other teammates consisted of a rather big guy. He had a deep tan and heavily built muscles that were clearly defined as he crossed his arms. He had large wolf ears of the same color as his black hair clearly visible, and Mute reckoned he would find a wolf's tail there as well. The last member was another girl, this one with brown hair pulled into a bun, her rectangular glasses amplifying the stern look on her face. Mute knew instantly that this girl was going to get along very well with Professor Goodwitch.

He turned back to find the professor extremely close to him and staring at him. "Was there something you needed from team JALC?" he asked. Mute informed the man that he had been simply memorizing the faces of the teammates of an acquaintance of his. "...There will be plenty of time for making acquaintances later, Mute." Oobleck admonished the boy, who nodded shortly.

Whispers broke out around the room.

"The guy didn't say anything, or did he?"

"I didn't see his lips move at all…"

"How'd the professor understand him?"

"Is this why he's called Mute?"

"Everyone!" Oobleck was in the center of the room, taking a sip of his seemingly endless coffee. "Please, focus! We have work to do!"

And class continued after he received reluctant confirmations from everyone.

"Class dismissed!" Oobleck said quite a while later, a few milliseconds before the bell rang. People got out of there like they were on Oobleck's coffee.

"He was… Strange." Weiss commented bluntly.

"But he's gotta be strong." Yang pointed out. "He's a hunter, after all. All our teachers are."

"That's a very good point." Pyrrha nodded.

Mute tuned out from the conversation, having little to add and admittedly feeling another new unpleasant emotion after the instructor called him out for not paying attention, and approached Jaune and his team. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the girl had noticed him immediately and was looking right at him. Mute blinked. The girl had a red right eye and a blue left eye. That was very odd.

He politely greeted Jaune, as the blonde was clearly an acquaintance of Ruby's. Then he turned to the other three, wondering who they were. The brunette blinked in surprise at the redhead's ability to communicate without speaking, And Jaune really hadn't spoken to him much, so he reacted, but the other two did not react as badly.

"Name's Arthur." the brute of a teenager replied shortly.

"...Hello." the girl with the strange hair and eyes said slowly. "My name is Carla." she continued. She looked away quickly. The girl was acting **very** strangely.

"And I am Leslie." the final girl proclaimed. "A pleasure to meet you. Mute, was it?" she offered her hand.

Mute stared at it blankly for a moment before he remembered what it meant and he grasped it, accepting the handshake. He gave her a nod, although his blank expression failed to change at all. Before any more words could be shared, Ruby zipped up to the group. "Jaune!" she exclaimed "Hey. How's your first school day going?"

Jaune rubbed his head. "Uh…" he muttered. "Fine? I guess?"

"He needs training," Arthur grunted, swishing his massive wolf tail and crossing his arms. "A **lot** of training."

"But we'll handle that," Leslie assured Ruby and Mute quickly. "And he has proven to be good at snap decisions in battle."

"He'll survive." Carla nodded.

"Aww, guys…" Jaune muttered, embarrassed. "Thanks?"

"Welcome," Arthur grunted in reply.

"Well, uh, that's great!" Ruby said awkwardly "But…. We gotta get to our next class, right? Let's go!"

Mute nodded in acknowledgment and turned away from the group. As he and Ruby walked away, Mute turned back to the white haired girl with the blue. Something seemed very… Contradictory about her. He had difficulty placing it.

"C'mon, best friend!" Yang said cheerily, still determined to drag Mute everywhere as she was doing right now with her arm wrapped around his shoulders. He struggled, but despite having impressive strength, Yang outmatched him in the sheer power department.

Blake just met his eyes with amusement this time instead of rescuing him. Traitor.

* * *

Mute held the side of his head while Glynda had asked them to do something for her instead of droning on. The pre-assessment was easily more accomplishable than writing everything the instructor said down. It was the fourth class of the day now. Lunch and free period come directly after this.

Mute was not in this position because he was bored. True, he had completed the assignment to the best of his abilities and freely admitted when he did not know something, which interestingly was in regards to many of the questions on the test. However, he was in that position because, as usual, conflict had struck. What had been that tone he used? Why had the word 'traitor' come up in his thoughts, especially accompanied by the urge to roll his eyes? Mute shook his head slowly, wondering how he was supposed to learn what that all meant.

"Are you finished?" Glynda Goodwitch asked, looming above the boy.

Mute nodded to her and handed her the sheet of paper. Professor Goodwitch added it to her short pile of already completed pre-assessments, which included three others, and Leslie's. Mute had discovered that Leslie was quite the fan of Glynda. She had run up and asked a dozen questions of the woman, who answered them quickly and efficiently and asked the girl to sit down before Leslie could accidentally prevent class from starting.

It was Blake and Arthur that managed to overhear the teacher muttering: "Those three teams, hmm?" likely referring to how difficult they would be.

Arthur's ears twitched in response as he slowly answered his questions. He seemed more the brawny type than the brainiac type, although Mute refused to advance such assumptions. For all he knew, the boy could have quite a lot of sense in the battlefield compared to understanding in the classroom. Or he could just be taking his time, which Mute took into account as an option because the big guy's face was impassive and Mute could not see his paper.

Slightly bored, Mute folded his hands over each other on the desk and watched Glynda with his always intent gaze. The woman's own gaze constantly traveled around the room, intent on keeping order. She would glare at people who were talking until they noticed and shut up. She met Mute's eyes and simply moved on.

Pyrrha finished her paper next, followed closely by Weiss, and then a lot of people started turning the papers in. Pyrrha relaxed, knowing that she would get near full marks on this pre-assessment. Weiss felt confident, as did Ruby and Yang and Ren. Nora was contemplating taking a nap versus eating one of the pancakes she had snuck out of the room before they left. Blake was certain she had done very well. Arthur was still answering questions. Leslie knew she had full marks. Carla had an unreadable expression on her face and Jaune was silently panicking with his head in his hands.

Leslie, sitting next to Jaune, was torn. She wanted to help her teammate, who seemed adorably incompetent, but at the same time, helping would be cheating. Even Arthur seemed to be getting more questions correct than their leader, and he did everything slowly.

 **Snap!**

...And powerfully, Leslie reflected, looking at the snapped pencil in Arthur's hand even as he held it up and inspected it. "I got it," Leslie said again, pulling a riding crop similar to Glynda's, though with a different design, out of seemingly nowhere, and pointed her weapon at the pencil. It flew back together immediately, and she put it away.

Glynda noticed this immediately, raising an eyebrow. She had seen Arthur and Carla battle, and they had unique fighting styles, but this Leslie girl seemed to be taking a lot of inspiration from Glynda herself. She added to that the girl's excited behavior at the beginning of class and looked back down at some of the paperwork in her hand. The girl had made it into the school, after all, so she must have some degree of skill with the riding crop.

Glynda searched the groups of people gathered in her room silently with her eyes. She analyzed each one and remembered some of the special things about them.

Pyrrha had exceptional, even incredible skill using both her semblance and her weapons in perfect harmony. Her spear could be used in many ways, including the ability to use it as a rifle. The sheer versatility and speed of the girl made up for any potential shortcomings.

Next to her was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Her glyphs were also very versatile. However, she was reported to have quite the attitude and a certain… Haughtiness. Glynda hoped that with the help of her teammates, she would grow past that. She did have potential, after all.

Yang Xiao Long separated Weiss and Ruby. The girl was impressively strong, but her method of attacking was incredibly direct and not too versatile. Thankfully, she had extensive experience with the martial arts and her lack of versatility was made up for by sheer power.

Ruby herself seemed to be drawing again, as she had done several times. Passing the time in which nothing happened during class by entertaining herself. She was young, two years younger than most of the rest of them. She was incredibly quick and her weapon of choice was one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed, and she wielded it very well for someone her age. Yet, she was inexperienced. She needed to learn quite a lot.

One row below them sat the team led by Lie Ren. Ren himself was skilled in martial arts as well, specializing in palm strikes. His weapons of choice were very efficient for quick strikes, and dealt damage quickly and properly. He had little endurance; the boy would likely be sent flying by a good hit.

Nora Valkyrie sat to his left. Being the only energetic character in a team full of people who were generally… Quieter seemed not to have had too much of a negative effect on her. In fact, her energy was likely going to hold the team together in the near future, and make communication more likely to occur with her antics. Her weapon of course, a hammer mixed with a grenade launcher, made her the heavy hitter of the group.

To Ren's right sat Mute. No last name, no backstory. An enigma. He seemed not to blink often. He was extremely attentive, and both powerful and fast. Glynda was uncertain of how to feel about the boy. His steady yet oddly blank gaze never faltered, creeping out everybody near him. Despite this, he was able to accomplish what Ruby's team had managed to accomplish in an eighth of the time, using a known weakness against the deathstalker. His blades were as sharp as Ruby's scythe, and his heel could slam something as powerfully as a heavy hammer. Despite his impressive nature, he had a critical flaw. Communication. How was he expected to communicate in an instance where he was forcibly separated from his team and eye contact was blocked? He would be cut off, and then someone might get hurt. A great asset… Yet also a possible hindrance.

And finally for their team was Blake. The girl's shadow semblance was extremely useful, and the more Blake mastered it the more efficient she would be in battle. She had already had extensive experience in battle thus far, and Glynda certainly knew who she was. Ozpin kept no secrets from her. The headmaster was particularly interested in helping the young girl, despite Blake not being very open about her troubled past.

And the third row up housed the third team of people who seemed to be getting along nicely. First was Jaune Arc. Glynda frowned as she looked at the frustrated boy. No matter what his transcripts said, he was not ready for the level of combat expected of him. His weapons were low-tech; They looked practically like antiques, suitable for combat but woefully inadequate compared to the weapons his peers wielded.

Next to him sat Arthur, possibly the most brutish person his age that Glynda had seen in a long time. Without Leslie there to back him up, the wolf faunus would have broken at least five pencils already. It was ridiculous. Glynda had not seen a specific semblance in action for the boy, but she suspected it had something to do with his immense (and constant) strength.

Leslie, to Arthur's left, kept glancing at professor noted that she seemed to have taken the role of a role model for Leslie, and the girl was taking off with it. Her semblance was also a mystery so far to Glynda, but if it wasn't similar…

Finally, there was Carla. The enigma. Glynda had seen her acting in this reserved way a few times so far, but just by chance, she saw the girl with an odd look in her eyes and… **Pranking** another student with some incredibly elaborate trick that Glynda hadn't recognized in all of her time as a student or an instructor. Then she had shaken her head and resumed her normal facial expression and went back to what she had been doing. Extremely odd. And yet she was a capable warrior all the same.

The group of twelve were the three teams that Glynda predicted would cause the most commotion in and out of her classroom. And as they all seemed to sit in that perfect trapezoid of seats in her circular room, they likely would be… Communicating… All the time. With the exception of Mute, who took things very seriously, and Leslie, who seemed to idolize her.

Well, perhaps spread amongst the teams, those three could keep things in some form of order.

Leslie aimlessly spun her riding crop between the fingers of her left hand. The item was the same brown as her hair, and the tip of it was adorned by what appeared to be an odd small hoop with spikes all along it, and a brown handle as well. It had a place to open and put dust cartridges in within the handle itself. She only required a small amount of aura to fix something, like Arthur's pencil.

She caught Professor Goodwitch's gaze, and smiled brightly. She had always admired the skill with dust that the woman demonstrated, and had intended to be capable of much the same. It was a shame, she admitted, that she did not have the semblance to use telekinesis, but she felt that her semblance was close enough.

Glynda didn't return the smile. Instead, she stepped up and took the papers that Arthur and Jaune had, as she had seen both of the boys were finally done filling in answers. Arthur's answers had been gathered slowly but many were correct. Jaune's paper was… A mess.

"It seems a majority of you are well informed about the topics involved in my class already," Glynda announced as she looked through the pages swiftly. "This will help me iron out our curriculum this term. Be aware that the grades for these particular papers will be available to you, but will not ultimately affect your final grade. That is, after all, what a pre-assessment is."

Jaune sighed with relief.

"I will bring the papers graded to you all as soon as possible, but for now, I shall explain what our class is all about." Glynda continued, setting the stack of papers on the desk and stalking to the middle of the room.

Mute tapped his pencil down several minutes later when the professor decided to take a dramatic pause from her words. Glynda, thankfully, was a very efficient instructor. There was more 'useful information' in two pages than in seventeen of Port's class' pages of notes. Professor Goodwitch continued to get straight to the point every time she spoke. Many of the students who had the other instructors earlier were quite relieved by this, with some exceptions. A few oddballs had been quite interested in the stories that Professor Port was saying.

Towards the end of class, Glynda stepped back to the center of the room and nodded. "I appreciate the effort of most of my students in this class to remain on task today." she complimented the lot of them. "And I will further appreciate it if you keep it up. The bell will ring in thirty seconds, so feel free to pack up your things, and tomorrow, we will put much more effort and emphasis on learning the art of combat and its complexities."

The bell rang. People cleared out quickly, as they looked forward to eating in the mess hall and having a free period directly afterward.

"Professor Goodwitch!" Leslie excitedly bounded up to the woman, pushing her glasses back up over her eyes again.

"Yes?" Glynda asked, giving her signature 'no nonsense' look to the girl.

"I uh I just wanted to say, you are very much my inspiration for wanting to become a huntress and I'm so glad to finally meet you in person and you're exactly how I was told you'd be and-... Iwanttoleanfromyou!" Leslie got out.

Glynda blinked, honestly a little surprised. "I do have a particularly busy schedule, dear," she said frankly.

Leslie's excitement dropped a few notches, but Glynda wasn't done. "I do, however, have free time on certain days. What is it you need?"

"I want to fight like you do." Leslie said, taking a 'no nonsense' tone herself. "And I hoped… You could teach me some of your techniques using dust."

Glynda found no reason not to humor the girl who had obviously spent a lot of time working with her technique to be similar to her, and the woman was admittedly flattered anyhow. "I see. I have an open time after hours on Thursdays, if you would like to meet me in my office at that time." Glynda responded, pulling out her scroll and jotting it down.

Leslie had stars in her eyes, and she couldn't hold the serious expression anymore. "You mean it?" she asked, almost thinking it was too good to be true.

"Yes, of course. Seven to eight-thirty PM, Thursdays." Glynda said, watching the brunette hurriedly schedule that in on her scroll and even set herself two reminders for it. "Don't be late."

"I won't!" Leslie exclaimed excitedly, and she waved at the woman before practically skipping after her teammates, who were at the door and patiently waiting for her.

Professor Goodwitch decided to sit down. That had been quite the odd experience.

Jaune smiled at the brunette. "Nice." he complimented her.

"Hey, short sentences are Arthur's thing." Carla quipped with a smile on her face.

"Hmph" was all Arthur had to contribute.

Jaune chuckled. "Okay. It's time for lunch, and the others went to the mess hall already. Let's meet them there."

"Okay," Leslie responded shortly.

"And now she's doing it." Carla looked away. "Anyways, yeah, we should go."

* * *

When Carla sat across from him, Mute analyzed her more closely. He was sure of it now: she wasn't hunched over. It looked like it at first, but the bulge of her back only made it looked like she was hunched over. When one really looked, it was clear she was sitting up straight. There was something concealed under her shirt, tight against her back. Mute wondered if that was her weapon or something else.

He watched as her eyes changed from lively to slightly confused as she watched Jaune get up from his plate to get something from the soda machines he saw on the end, and she, still holding the very odd expression, reached behind her, her arm definitely further back than the back of her shirt, and mysteriously pulled out a container of something that she sprinkled onto her leader's food. Mute and his teammates watched as she seemed to put it away, and he blinked. The moment he did, the girl seemed back to normal.

"So," Carla said as if she hadn't just done something to Jaune's food. "You guy's been holding up okay? I found Professor Port and Professor Oobleck to be kind of difficult to listen to."

Everyone continued staring at her for a bit, though Nora's stare was one of admiration rather than the odd feeling everyone else was getting. Finally, Leslie spoke up. "I could follow Oobleck's words okay." she said "But my problem with Port was that I couldn't tell when I should listen and when I didn't need to listen. The important bits were strewn so sporadically into his speech that it was impossible to tell."

"Well, our note-taking savior here has our back." Yang patted Mute on the back, hard.

"Which I'm **very** grateful for." Jaune admitted as he sat down, a several cans labeled 'people like grapes' in his arms. "Grape soda anybody?"

"Everybody likes grapes," Yang replied cheerily, picking a can out of his arms, and everybody aside from Mute, Ren, and blake took one as well.

Jaune set the unused three cans aside as he opened the top of his. Then he set it aside. Everybody watched silently, tension rising, as he cut into the meat on his plate and brought his fork up to his mouth. He stopped. "...Why is everybody staring at me?" he asked.

No response. The boy shrugged and put it in his mouth. Then his eyes bugged out a bit as he forced himself to swallow. "Spicy!" he exclaimed, grabbing his soda and promptly draining it. He gasped a few times as Nora cackled at Carla's trick.

"What're you talking about, Arc?" Yang asked, chuckling. "Ours are just fine. Look!" she took a bite and chewed slowly, tantalizingly.

Carla sighed. "Sorry, Jaune. I'll get you a new plate," she said, taking the boy's plate and walking off with it.

"So what's her deal?" Weiss asked.

"Weiss!" Ruby hissed.

"What?" Weiss shot back, her tone not exactly inviting the younger girl to continue.

"We don't know," Arthur said. "She's unsure herself."

"Carla is… Complicated. Sometimes she just kind of zones out and pranks somebody, and then comes to her senses." Leslie explained "But if anybody's going to talk about it in detail, it should be her. It's not our place to discuss what she has to deal with."

Carla returned with a full plate for Jaune. "Sorry." she apologized again, and sat down in her spot.

Nora was leaning towards her. "You **gotta** tell me how you made that super spicy stuff in the container appear out of thin air," she said.

"I… Can't," Carla admitted. Ren sighed with relief the instant the girl confirmed this. "People tell me I do that sort of thing, but I don't remember it."

"If you don't feel comfortable talking about it, then perhaps it can wait," Pyrrha told her before she could stutter on. The girl certainly didn't appear comfortable. Carla smiled gratefully at Pyrrha before sending Nora an apologetic look.

"Aww…" Nora sat back down on the chair heavily, as she had leaned forward enough to have left the seat.

"The eye color thing's pretty cool, though," Ruby commented, changing the topic. "You're left eye's this awesome sky blue and your right's the same color as Crescent Rose!" she exclaimed.

"Ah… Thanks." Carla nodded.

Mute casually ate his food as more banter arose among the other eleven people. He didn't join in, didn't get involved. He had a lot on his mind. What was Blake hiding in her bookshelf? Why did he act so oddly when Blake smirked at him instead of getting him out of Yang's grip? Why did Yang make him twitchy just by being nearby? And how on earth was he supposed to separate the 'important' things from the 'unimportant' things in taking notes?

Mute did his best to hide his discomfort, but Blake was used to seeing that look all the time. She let it slide for ten minutes while people cleared their plates of food and drink, and then just continued talking for a while. Then, she put her hand firmly on his shoulder. "Mute," she said.

The boy looked at her, confusion written on his face. "What's wrong?" she asked. He blinked at her, uncertain as to why she was asking.

"Aww, maybe he's just feeling a bit left out!" Nora exclaimed.

"Nora…" Ren sighed.

Mute simply decided to inform them that he had a lot on his mind, and that he barely understood any of it."

"Well, maybe we can help," Leslie said, her arms crossed on the table.

"Go for it," Arthur added.

Mute let out a long breath through his nose. He closed his eyes for a while, and then looked directly at the people across from him, only choosing to mention the odd feeling he got when Blake hadn't saved him from Yang, and the impulse to roll his eyes.

"That's being amused and making a joke," Carla said immediately. Mute didn't really understand, and it showed in his eyes even if he couldn't communicate like that.

"Yikes," Yang said as she leaned over to see his eyes. "If it's this guy's first time ever finding something funny, We have a **lot** to work on."

"Hey, Blake." Ruby piped up "You and Mute were around each other for a few days at least before the rest of us got here, right?"

Blake looked over at her slowly. "Yes. How did you know?" she asked.

"Well… 'Cause you guys were here already when we got off the plane and stuff, and I just thought you'd most likely been there for several days because you knew your way around and stuff." Ruby analyzed, causing several of the people around her to blink in surprise.

"...Yes, that is correct." Blake acknowledged.

Yang theatrically pointed an accusing finger at her. "And it didn't click that this kid needed to learn how to laugh?" she asked, hiding the smile that almost reached her mouth as she did so.

Mute felt no ill feelings towards Blake. He wouldn't have known that being amused by something was normal. He didn't even recognize the feeling, but Yang had given him a word to associate it with. He couldn't understand why Yang was suddenly accusing the girl of failing something.

Blake didn't catch the humorous glint in Yang's eyes either. "It took several days for me to recognize that Mute had little understanding of most emotions, and his story about being woken up by some mysterious person left both of us confused." she retorted smoothly.

"Perhaps it would be best for Mute to learn these things… **Slowly**." Ren said, a bit of authority growing in his tone of voice. "Yang, you overwhelm him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the hothead asked immediately, her eyes flaring red for a moment.

"It means that you're going to scare him at this rate." Pyrrha supplied, trying to be helpful.

Yang deflated. "Oh. I getcha." she acknowledged. "Sure."

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Getting pulled around by you isn't too bad…" Ruby consoled her sister. "And I should know."

"She should know?" Leslie asked, directed at Carla.

Carla shrugged.

"That was fun." Yang seemed lost in a memory.

Mute looked at his empty plate. His eyes narrowed slightly. Something about this seemed unnatural. He felt like his thought process should be somewhere along the lines of 'this porcelain item is on top of the table and has nothing on it: useless'. That made sense to him. Instead it was 'i've finished my food, and am sitting her awkwardly while people I know discuss me in great detail for reasons I can't comprehend and I have a bad feeling that I don't like that **makes** me think and I don't know what to do so it's probably best if I just keep staring at my plate until somebody gives me a direct order that I can follow'.

He clenched his eyes shut for a count of three, and opened them again. He wondered what the girl had done to him, if she was the cause of all of this. Looking out at the group that he now trusted, Mute decided, now might be a good time to show that trust.

…

…

…

"She sounds really weird," Weiss commented. "This golden girl, I mean. Her words are cryptic, she makes gold tablets appear out of nowhere, etcetera. I'd hate to wake up like that."

Maybe Yang reminds you of someone you saw?" Ruby asked, voicing one of the options Mute had gone over in his head.

…

"Oh." Ruby murmured. "Yeah, you mentioned something like that, or, you said she said something like that."

"Well, we trust you," Ren said calmly. "You don't have to worry about any of us talking about what she said your… Previous life was like."

"But it would explain why your memories are so disjointed," Leslie commented.

"Uh… Did you guys totally gloss over the 'different world' thing?" Jaune asked, a bit tense. Many of the others blinked and then chuckled.

"Sorry, but isn't that, like, crossover material?" Yang quipped.

"Well, I was wondering why Mute had near-violent reactions when Yang pops up in front of him. If he was like **that** before, maybe Yang looks something like his previous target." Blake spoke up. Everyone felt a chill as she said this. "The memory, disjointed and inaccurate or not, could be causing that."

…

"Eh, you couldn't get rid of me if you tried." Yang consoled the silent boy, patting his head.

"But what if-" Weiss was cut off suddenly by Blake.

"It won't."

"Hang on, how do you know?" Weiss asked irritably.

"Weiss…" Ruby murmured.

"No, I need to know this," Weiss argued.

Ren sighed. "Weiss, Mute trusts us enough to tell us all of these odd things revolving around how he came to be here, and even if it doesn't answer all of the questions we have, we need to share that trust. It's how a team works."

Weiss opened her mouth to retort, but slowly closed it again. His last sentence had discouraged her from further argument. Still, she appeared rather wary of Mute from that point forward.

"Well, weird in-the-dark backstory aside…" Ruby murmured awkwardly. Then she brightened. "Ooh! Let's talk weapons!"

Many of the people watching her sweatdropped. "...Sure." Pyrrha agreed slowly. "I use a shield and a spear that can become a short sword or a rifle as fast as I need it to."

"Hammers for life and pancakes!" Nora exclaimed **very** loudly, attracting all sorts of attention.

"...I do not know what she means by pancakes, but I use this." Leslie held up her weapon. "I sort of got major inspiration from Professor Goodwitch, so I've learned how to fight like her… Mostly. I have a lot to learn."

"Sword." Arthur grunted, widening his arms in a gesture that boiled down to 'it's really freaking big.'

"I can use a pair of knives as well as a cutlass," Carla explained calmly, but shortly.

"Sword and Shield," Jaune muttered dejectedly. He reflected on the fact that he did manage to find himself a team with teammates who, none of which had high-tech gear, just like him. Well, Jaune reminded himself, Arthur's sword did fold in on itself to actually be carryable. Even his shield did that.

Yang stood up dramatically once more. "I am the grand master of punching all the things!" she declared loudly, again attracting attention. She mimed jabbing at an invisible foe a few times. "Yeah!"

"That you are, Yang!" Ruby cheered along with her. "And anything she doesn't punch, I cut into teensy bits with Crescent Rose!"

"The gun-scythe thing." Jaune guessed.

"Customizable, high-impact sniper rifle, **Jaune**." Ruby corrected him while sticking her tongue out at him. Many of the group members chuckled, even Ren.

Weiss rolled her eyes, thinking the action was particularly childish, but then saw that everyone had their eyes on her this time. "I use my rapier, Myrtenaster." She said. "And glyphs, and many dust techniques."

"Ooh." Leslie seemed to get an idea. "We could compare notes on dust spells!"

Weiss couldn't help but smile. "I think that would be beneficial to the both of us. Thank you." she nodded to the girl.

As it came to be Ren's turn, he sighed. "I use a pair of automatic handguns equipped with collapsible blades. I use dust as the main source of power for its firing rate. Stormflower is its name, and I can easily hide them in my sleeves."

Blake nodded. "I use my blades, which consist of my sheath and the katana within. And I can turn the katana into a pistol with ease, and use an elastic ribbon to rapidly fling it about, for lack of a better phrase. It's… Far more in depth than it sounds."

"I believe you," Weiss said shortly as she turned to Mute. "Well?"

Mute blinked, supposing they wanted him to do what they had done. Mentally sighing, as he could not simply say it aloud, the boy stepped onto his chair, balancing easily on one leg and holding up his boot. Then he flicked his toes downwards, unsheathing the sickle-like blades hidden within the slots on the base of his boot. Then he sheathed them again with another flick. He held his boot up to his arm and struck his ankle against his wrist, the force of which, caused the blade within the heel of the boot to unsheath. The boy pulled his leg away, and the blade slid back into its proper position. Finally, he did a similar trick with his foot aiming the other direction, revealing a blade within the toe portion of his boots.

He slowly sat down, his demonstration complete.

"You totally forgot about the energy absorption thing, but whatevs." Nora shrugged, then leaned forward. Everyone stared, wondering how on earth she had gotten the pancake she held in her hand. It had syrup on it and everything, and pancakes weren't being served right now. "His boots totally absorbed the energy of the grimm and he used it to rip through them! It was… **Awesome**!"

"What kind of metal can do that anyways?" Leslie asked. Mute simply didn't know, a message that caused the girl to comically faceplant. "You don't **know**?" she asked incredulously. "Are you sure it's not radioactive and stuff?"

"Hey, he's used them for years, we're assuming." Blake pointed out.

"Yeah…" the remainder of Weiss' sentence was extremely quiet, but Arthur and Blake heard every word once again.

"How dare you," Blake growled. "He trusted us not to call him crazy when he told his story of waking up, and we need to trust him in return!"

Weiss glared at her. "And what exactly-" she stopped as Pyrrha put her hand on the white-haired girl's shoulder.

"Weiss, I don't think now is a good time for voicing concerns." Pyrrha calmly admonished the slightly younger girl, nodding to Mute, who's eyes had shadowed over and his back had hunched somewhat. "Yes, there are risks, but there are risks in everything we do. We are here in this very school to take risks, to put our lives on the line for others. Why is Mute any different?"

"Because… Because…" Weiss stammered slowly, but trailed off and looked away. She gritted her teeth.

"We'll give you time to decide whether you can trust him or not," Pyrrha assured the girl, and met everyone's eyes. Despite **not** being Mute, she was capable of sending the message that she really meant **all** of them would do as she said or there may be consequences out of Pyrrha's control.

Mute stared at his plate again, a bad feeling in his stomach once more. Bad because he thought Weiss was right when she was muttering. He was different. He was dangerous. He was probably responsible for killing people he didn't remember, and he probably was quick enough to betray someone without instant retaliation or defense.

Mute stood up. He was going to ask after Glynda's grading on his pre-assessment, and, according to him, wished to do so alone. The boy walked away, his footsteps disturbingly silent considering he was constantly wearing metal on his feet.

* * *

Mute nodded respectfully to Glynda as he stepped into the room.

"Was there something you needed?" Glynda asked. Mute nodded and took a seat opposite her desk. He was interested in knowing his results on the pre-assessment ahead of time. Glynda sighed and pulled a familiar stack of papers filled with short answer questions and answers.

"Mute, you did exceptionally well… In every combat related question. Everything else… You knew next to nothing or absolutely nothing about." she told him as she looked at the paper. She lowered it so that she could meet his almost blank eyes above it. "It is almost as if you have spent every waking hour of your life training to fight and not bothering to or being unable to learn anything else. It has me concerned."

Mute blinked, tilting his head. Was the fighting style he used insufficient?

Professor Goodwitch sighed again. "Mute, many aspects of battle revolve around this 'everything else'. There will be scenarios—plenty of scenarios—in which if you just go in for the direct attack, you are going to get killed no matter what skill level you have." she explained calmly. "And your inability to communicate like the rest of us leaves you at a disadvantage in that regard."

She set the paper down on the table. "I have made notes to this, like the others I have graded so far. Feel free to take it early, as you are already here. And Mute, **everything** I go over in my class is immensely important. Do not take anything for granted."

Mute nodded slowly, and took the page from the woman's desk. Mentally thanking the woman, he turned around and walked out.

He walked alone, having half of a free period left. The day was bright as it had been for a long time. Mute looked around at the relaxing students that lay either in the sun or the shade, enjoying themselves. For a moment, Mute wondered if he was going to be like that someday, when he… Learned.

He dismissed it and continued walking. He had nothing to do, but that did not stop the boy from walking on as if he was the busiest person on the planet.

Perhaps the dorm would be quiet. He reflected on that thought. The others were likely in the library or something, 'hanging out', as Yang would call it. And they knew about everything he knew about now. His eyes narrowed. He wondered if that was the right decision.

Ultimately, he had to accept that he had made the choice. Yang trusted him even if he kept getting twitchy around her. Many of the others trusted him in return for his trust to them. Weiss, however, seemed to worry a lot about him instead.

Mute gritted his teeth. This was not supposed to be difficult. This was supposed to be a case of 'this one I can trust, this one I cannot, and I will interact with them if need be'.

No, it was 'I understand why Weiss didn't trust me as quickly as the others did and the fact that the others trusted me immediately was downright strange after all the insane information brought to light, but it still hurts and I don't know why.'

Far too in depth. Mute shook his head violently to clear the thoughts. This was not the time.

He walked back inside after going through the courtyard and moved through the hall at a constant pace. Apparently he was glaring, which seemed to have been causing the teams that passed him to give the orange-haired boy a healthy distance as he walked past them. As much as they could manage in a hallway, anyways.

The boy swiftly opened the door to his dorm room, seeing that it was empty, and closing it. Looking straight at his bed, he noticed a parcel on the comforter. Mute blinked. Gold. The person who wrapped it chose gold as a color for the wrapping paper and the ribbon.

"Somebody likes you."

Mute shivered and whirled, bring his foot up halfway before cutting himself off. Why was it that his extraordinary senses were failing him? Was Blake that quiet?

He looked at her, letting his surprise die down, before he had the inescapable urge to look away. His gaze falling on the parcel, he picked it up slowly, and tugged at the ribbon. Frowning as the material was rather tough to rip up, he held the small package up to one of the blades from his boots, slicing it through and taking it off.

He unfolded the wrapping and pulled out four small metal pieces. White metal, very similar to the metal of his boots. And a small piece of paper. Written on the paper was: 'I think this is as forgetful as I've been in years, but here's some things I meant to give you. You can snap them into place on the slots in your boots to prevent the blades coming out. This'll let you train without threatening your peers. You'll be able to remove them when you need to.'

Mute looked at the eight metal pieces in his hand. He lifted a foot and pushed the metal piece into the slot, watching it seem to click into place. He did the same multiple times, switching feet when possible, until he had sealed all of the slots on his boots. Then he set everything down.

Blake snatched up the paper. "For training, huh?" she asked. "The wrapping's gold. Think it was your weird girl?"

Mute wondered how exactly the weird girl was his. "It was a joke." Blake brushed it off. "But it seems you've got a guardian angel watching over you. At least, she acts like it."

Mute turned away from the girl, his eyes halfway closed. He picked up the leftover mess from the useful gift. He was still looking down when Nora popped out from under **his** bed. "Yo!" she exclaimed, making the boy leap away with the speed of a startled cat. The girl must have been hiding there since he came in; there was no other physically possible solution.

Mute cast grateful eyes on Ren, who entered the room like a normal person. "You're welcome," Ren said casually, his arms behind his back. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

Mute looked him in the eyes. No, he did not want to talk about it, other than to leave it that he felt Weiss was the only one who had any sort of reasonable reaction among them.

"But it hurt when she doubted you." Ren refuted. "I saw it."

Blake sat down on her bed. "So maybe the reasonable reaction would hurt," she said pointedly. "What matters is that you don't let it get in the way. She'll come around eventually. So what if she's the only one being reasonable? The rest of us trust you, and even if it's wrong, you should focus on that."

Mute stilled, keeping an eye on Ren. He knew he should listen to the boy, as Ren was his commander in a way. He should obey his leader. Furthermore, Ren believed what he was saying, that much was obvious. And even without those, Ren seemed a little worried for Mute. However, Mute still felt a raging conflict. It just didn't make **sense**. Nothing did, anymore.

"You trusted me with your story," Ren said, placing a reassuring hand on Mute's shoulder. "Can you trust me with something as simple as this?"

Mute considered. The comparison Ren made was clear, and well made. He nodded in agreement eventually, causing the boy to give a light smile and pat Mute's shoulder before he stepped back. "Well, everybody else is waiting for us in the library." Ren continued with a smirk. "Come on. Join us."

The orange-haired boy blinked. Then he nodded slowly.

* * *

Considering that the last two classes were rather mundane and that the library was just consisting of the group making small talk that didn't amount to much at this point, the day was over much faster than the morning had been.

Ruby gave a positively adorable yawn (everyone thought so), and waved goodbye to Ren and Jaune's teams before she, Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha left the library after classes to get to their dorm for the rest of the night.

"Y'know, for a first day, that wasn't so utterly exhausting," Yang commented brightly.

"True." Weiss agreed. "I kind of expected that the first day would hit us harder because we were on break and all."

"Our first two classes are a doozy though…" Ruby muttered, slumping over.

"Tell me about it." Yang groaned. "Port and Oobleck…"

"It did seem like we would have to develop strategies for learning from them," Pyrrha commented, looking at her scroll. "At the very least, all twelve of us speak to one another constantly, and one of us takes notes on everything that is said at the moment. Together, I doubt it is even possible to fail in terms of schoolwork."

"...Which leaves actual battle. I don't intend to lose that either." Weiss crossed her arms.

"Oh," Yang grinned. "I certainly won't."

"Let's get some rest." Ruby offered, yawning again. "Tomorrow might be worse."

"It is likely that everything will kick off at once, yes. Let us be prepared." Pyrrha nodded.

"I wholeheartedly agree." Weiss nodded, and the four girls walked to their dorm.

* * *

"What do you think?" Jaune asked, lying on his bed.

"I think you boys are going to have to step into the restroom to change." Carla teased.

"..." Arthur closed his eyes. The large boy sat on his bed in a meditative pose, his wolf tail curled around his waist and his ears drooping.

Leslie nudged Carla. "Good luck with that," she said to the other girl. "We're going to have to deal with it."

"Why oh why are there co-ed dorms in this school?" Carla asked, crossing her arms.

"I dunno," Jaune replied.

"Tomorrow, Professor Goodwitch is likely going to start us on battle training," Leslie spoke up. "So… We'd better be ready. I've seen all your weapons except for Carla's."

"I saw her putting them away," Jaune spoke up now, ignoring Carla's deadpan look. Even as the white-haired girl wondered if they remembered that she was in fact in the room, he continued: "They're super cool looking."

Leslie shot Carla a sympathetic glance and told the boy: "I'm sure I'll see them tomorrow."

"Let's all just relax right now." Jaune offered. Everyone agreed and the girls too collapsed onto their beds after the first school day.

* * *

"I wonder why Mute walked on ahead." Blake mused as she, Ren, and Nora walked along the hall. "He almost seemed in a hurry."

"I'm sure we'll find out." Ren shrugged.

"And **I'm** sure it'll be **awesome** when it happens!" Nora squealed.

Blake went back to reading her book for a while, holding it with one hand as she rested the other at her side. "I'm sure it will," she said in a light but monotonous voice.

They neared the dorm door, hearing nothing. Blake put her ear to the door and slipped it open. She walked in, as did the rest of her team. The black-haired girl walked over to her bookshelf without really paying attention, her fingers ghosting over the books there. Immediately, she saw something was dreadfully, dreadfully wrong.

She turned slowly, and saw that Mute sat on his bed calmly. He raised an eyebrow and held a book up in his right hand. **Her** book. Blake felt a chill as she read 'Ninjas of Love'. Mute's expression said it all, even without his semblance.

 _Busted_ _ **.**_

* * *

 **So... I was writing this and I thought: 'I can't just let Jaune drop from the story entirely. That would be kind of inconsistent and I don't have a team that needs an extra person. Darn it, I'll make an entire team for him'. Enter Arthur, Carla, and Leslie. I hope I conveyed their characters well as they were introduced, and provided a healthy dose of mystery to Carla.**

 **I also discovered while fact checking on the RWBY wiki that faunus typically only show one characteristic from the animal that they share traits with. Whereas I gave Arthur a wolf tail and ears. Then I thought: 'Eh, I'm too lazy to go back and fix it, so he can keep both the ears and tail'. Whether this annoys anybody or not, I've made the decision.**

 **I think I did pretty well with Jaune's teammates. If you are going to review, I wonder what you think Carla is based on, or what Arthur and Leslie's semblances might be. Release your analytical nature, if you will.**

 **Thank you all for reading. Please review and give me your thoughts, positive or constructively negative, and I will see you all next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, everybody. This is Hyperjade, back with Silent. It's been a few cycles, and I'm glad to be back on this one for a bit. Bit of a shorter chapter this iteration, because I didn't want to pad stuff out.**

 **Here's hoping I can play with ice and not get burned.**

 **Reviews!**

 **Jango: I'll handle this one in the middle. Let's go with our first angry review ever!**

 **Me: Sorry, what did you say?**

 **Jango: Million words, that's how long you lasted before you pissed somebody off.**

 **Me: Wait... I already asked Finally An Available Username for an elaboration on his points. While I didn't like that he seemed to have treated it as some sort of test to see if I would ask for clarification, he did clarify some of what he meant, which was helpful. Thus, I'm pretty sure that anger was a facade. Whatever, I'm playing with fire and ice just traveling into this fandom. I appreciate your review, Finally An Available Username, I just wish for those reviews to be clear when they come up, not turned into a game...**

 **Gladiara Alata, hello. I am glad one of my OCs seems intriguing to you. As for what's next, I'm dangling it in front of you on a string as long as this AN is.**

 **And West, my good friend. Speaking of frustration... Yes, I was evil and posted chapter two of this when I was scheduled to resolve a cliffhanger over in KatJ. I think the evilness is out of my system... For now. I like your attempts to decipher what makes Carla tick, because I'm a sucker for theorizing. I encourage it, really, through the way I structure my work.**

 **That's all the three reviews for today. Here comes chapter three!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

"Port's doing his spiel again," Yang complained quietly.

"Shh." Leslie poked her back with her riding crop.

"Stop that," Yang muttered, her eyes narrowing somewhat.

"Then focus," Leslie told her.

"Monsters! Deeeeemons." Professor port proclaimed in his booming voice. "Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names. But **I** merely refer to them as 'prey'. Haha!"

Crickets could be heard in the general area the students sat in.

"Uh… And you shall too upon graduating from this prestigious academy." Port continued. "As I was saying, Vale, alongside the **other** three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise **treacherous** world. Our planet is absolutely **teeming** with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces, and that's where we come in."

"Huntsmen! Huntresses!" he made a 'k-k' sound, winking in Yang's direction, and Yang groaned and looked away. Port continued talking while everyone began to tune him out.

Mute sat between Ren and Blake, who were both whispering to him in an effort to teach him what kind of things he should write down and what parts he should ignore. They had stopped him from writing pretty much everything except for the alternate titles that the Grimm go by. Those three were paying careful attention together as a result. In the other rows, Weiss paid attention in spite of the distracting sounds of Ruby making scribbling noises as she drew on a blank sheet of paper. Leslie up in the third row was paying attention as well, although she found it difficult to focus.

Weiss was having the most trouble with Ruby to her left, and she gritted her teeth as the pencil scratch was loud and distracting to her, and she kept glancing at it until Ruby showed it to her entire team whilst making a funny noise. It was a full body caricature of Port, ultimately a circle with stick arms and legs and a funny face. Yang started giggling in the background while Weiss's glare was cold as ice.

Professor port heard the giggling and cleared his throat, saying nothing until quiet had been reestablished. Then, he began storytime once more while Mute added a few specific techniques the professor had mentioned to his notes. The orange haired boy was a bit lost, with Blake and Ren essentially controlling what he wrote this time. While he knew they were assisting him, yet another unwelcome feeling rose up. He ignored it.

Ruby was balancing her notebook with an apple on top… On the tip of a think pencil.

Weiss' expression turned angrier.

Professor port said another line, and Ruby had somehow gone from the balancing trick to snoring lightly, none of those items in sight. Weiss's teeth gritted even more.

As Port finished his statement that huntsmen and huntresses were to be honorable, dependable, strategic, well educated, and wise (all of which Mute wrote down), Weiss got distracted one more time, this time by Ruby picking her nose. Her eye twitched.

"So, which of you believes yourself to be the embodiment of all these traits?" Port asked out of the blue. It reached Weiss' ears and her hand shot up remarkably fast.

"I do, Sir!" she proclaimed, anger lacing her words.

"Well then, let's find out."

Port looked to the side, gesturing to a thick metal box with red eyes glowing out of a single window. "Step forward and face your opponent."

Everyone else in the room straightened and their attention as Weiss stepped into a separate room with an open ceiling to call her locker and grasp her weapon and battle clothing.

Less than a minute later, Weiss stood in her snow white combat wear with her weapon drawn, confidently facing the sealed container. Voices reached her ears and slightly distracted

"Goooo, Weiss!" Yang cheered.

"Fight well." Pyrrha nodded supportingly

"Yeah, represent team RWPY!" Ruby added.

"Ruby, I'm **trying** to focus!" Weiss rebuked Ruby specifically. Yang and Pyrrha shared bewildered looks while Ruby wilted in her seat.

"Oh… Sorry," she said in a small voice.

"Alright!" Port called, raising his axe. "Let the match… **Begin**!" he slashed the lock on the crate, and it burst open to reveal a boarbatusk. It's four red eyes piercing straight into Weiss as it charged the moment it registered her presence. Weiss glanced her rapier off of its massive tusks as she rolled to the left, immediately taking the appropriate stance as she glared daggers at the beast as it stopped itself and turned to her.

"Haha, weren't expecting that, **were** you?" Port asked in regards to the boar's durability. Ren's team knew this perfectly well, having met the species personally in their initiation. They had been difficult, but with appropriate teamwork each had been relatively easy. That, and Nora's hammer was OP.

Mute hadn't paid enough attention to how the boar attacked back then, as he had been busy besting the much slower giant scorpion, and he was taking notes. Everyone else was riveted on the action.

"Hang in there, Weiss!" Ruby called supportingly. Weiss flew forward with her rapier prepared, only for the boar to suddenly twist her weapon into its tusks while she gasped and was flung upwards at the same time due to the violent motion from the stocky creature.

She flipped and twirled to land back on her feet in front of the boar, turning it into a tug of war over her rapier with the vicious beast while her outspoken instructor behind her proclaimed: "Bold new approach, I like it!"

"Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss!" Ruby exclaimed, continuing to support her teammate. Weiss took the time to glare at Ruby, which proved a mistake as the boarbatusk whipped her weapon away. It clattered to the floor behind the vicious grimm. Then, as Weiss was defenseless, the boar bashed her and sent her flying with its tusks.

"Oh ho, now what will you do without your weapon?" Port asked, his mustache hiding his expression.

Weiss watched as the beast charged, and she rolled to the side to avoid it. Racing as fast as she could manage, the heiress rolled and grabbed her sword at the same time, coming to a kneel with the rapier in hand.

"Weiss!" Ruby shouted "Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss suddenly shouted, Ruby registering her words and glare and shrinking slowly back into her seat, her expression hurt and confused.

While Weiss was glaring at Ruby, the boarbatusk leapt straight into the air, curling up and suddenly spinning rapidly on the ground. It spin-dashed straight towards Weiss, who promptly put up a black and blue circular glyph in the air before her, blocking the attack. As the boar fell on its back, she jumped up, forming a similar glyph in the air and jumped down at it, running her weapon through its belly and sliding on her knees beside it as they came to a stop, the boar dying and dissolving into black mist before fading entirely.

"Bravo! Bra **vo**!" Port exclaimed. "It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true hunter in training. I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and stay vigilant. Class dismissed!"

"Sheesh, what's with her?" Jaune asked nobody in particular.

Nobody had an appropriate answer. Blake and Ren and Nora saw their comrade Mute packing his things up, as if unconcerned about the growing feud. Although he met nobody's eyes, so they couldn't get a read on him.

In fact, he was quite conflicted. It wasn't even remotely his place to get involved in a petty squabble made vicious by the frosty girl. At the same time, he had this urge to get in Weiss' face and intimidate her. The freak emotions that were rising were beginning to frighten him, and the boy closed his eyes and did his best to shut them down. Why had the strange golden girl given him these inane, inconsistent 'emotions'? It must have been so much easier when he was a mindless drone. A part of him yearned to go back to that feeling, right when he woke up. That blank feeling… That blessed emptiness. Silence, calm...

His teammates left him alone for the moment, instead watching Ruby run out after Weiss, who had stalked out without hesitation.

"Do you think we should follow them?" Yang asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Yang." Pyrrha sighed. "If we supported Ruby in this, what then? Weiss would feel suppressed, and we would be suppressing her. Having only three of us agree to one term will doubtless generate resentment in the fourth. If Weiss is going to be a part of the team, she has to **want** to."

"I get that." Yang crossed her arms, frowning "But I don't like the idea of leaving my little sister alone to talk to her. Ice Queen looked ready to stab somebody."

"If you remember our conversation about trust…" Pyrrha reminded her easily-made irate teammate "Well… Let's just say that the very distrust you feel is part of what's going to alienate her in the future. No matter what goes wrong, we **have** to grow as a team."

Yang's scowl deepened. "And what about Ruby?"

Pyrrha frowned herself. It was a difficult question, to be sure, but there was one thing she was certain of. "Weiss isn't going to do much more than yell at her, I know that much. None of us are animals."

Yang didn't answer that final statement, but her scowl faded somewhat.

As they conversed, Jaune's team walked by, "What's next today?" Carla asked.

"Professor Oobleck's class." Leslie recited without looking at the schedule she kept tucked in her pocket.

"Then let's go. We could use some quiet study time with an empty classroom."

"Good thinking, Carla." Leslie praised the girl. They walked off, Arthur not far behind. Jaune uncertainly glanced between everyone still present before hurrying after his team. This left Pyrrha and Yang; Ren's team had begun to go about their business as well.

"So you want me to just wait for Ruby to come back?" Yang asked, uncertain.

Pyrrha smiled. "I admire your desire to protect your sister, but somehow… I have the feeling things will turn out well in the end."

* * *

"Weiss!"

Weiss whirled at the mention of her name, specifically in the high pitched tone she knew all too well. "What?" she asked, sounding both upset and degrading at the same time. Ruby skidded to a stop before her, pausing after hearing the single word spoken so harshly.

"What is wrong with you?" Ruby asked. "Why are you being-?"

"What's wrong with **me**?" Weiss snarled "What's wrong with **you**!? You're supposed to be a leader, and all you've been so far is a nuisance."

Ruby had grown irritated and confused by the end of that sentence, snorting. "What did I do?" she asked the valid question hanging in the air.

"That's just it!" Weiss exclaimed, "You've done **nothing** to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child and now you've only continued to do so!"

"Weiss, where is this coming from?" Ruby said quietly. "What about all the talk of working together? I thought you believed in acting as a team?"

"Not a team led by you."

Ruby's hurt expression remained static as she heard this, so Weiss continued on.

"I've studied. **And** trained. And frankly, I deserve better." Weiss turned her back on Ruby, crossing her arms. "Ozpin. Made. A mistake."

Ruby reached out to her, but Weiss stalked away without another word. Ruby backed away a few steps before running into someone. She yelped and whirled, finding herself needing to look up more than she expected.

"Hmm… Now that didn't seem to go very well." Ozpin said.

Ruby recovered quickly from the collision and the coincidence, the doubt and hurt from before settling back on her shoulders. "Is she right?" she asked quickly, quietly. "Did you make a mistake?"

Ozpin gave Ruby a smile. "That remains to be seen," he answered gently.

* * *

Weiss stalked out of the hall in which she had been speaking to Ruby. Not ten meters away did she find Professor Port standing alone on the balcony she had walked into. Recognizing the man, Weiss walked a bit faster to approach him. "Professor Port!" she exclaimed to grab his attention.

Port turned. "Ah, Miss Schnee! And to what do I owe this fine pleasure?"

"I… I enjoyed your lecture."

"Of course you did, child, you have the blood of a true huntress in you."

Weiss beamed. "You really think so?" she asked brightly.

"Most surely!"

Weiss' smile fell as she looked away, a somewhat uncertain expression on her face. Port noticed this easily. "Hmm… Something's troubling you."

"Yes… Sir."

"Dear girl, confess to me your strife!"

Weiss clasped her hands together. "Well... " she looked up at her professor. "I think I should have been made the leader of team RWPY."

There was a long, pregnant pause as the both looked at each other unwaveringly.

"..."

"..."

"That's preposterous!"

* * *

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked Ozpin.

"I **mean** it's only been one day." the headmaster elaborated kindly. His tone lowered a bit, sounding almost sad. "Ruby, I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet," he said evenly. "But at this moment, I would not consider your appointment as leader to be one of them." he leaned down to Ruby's level, meeting her eyes. "Do you?"

* * *

"Excuse me!?" Weiss exclaimed, suddenly angry and affronted.

"I've believed in Professor Ozpin for many years." Port declared "And the man's never **once** led me astray!"

Weiss was flabbergasted. "So you would blindly accept his decision, even after seeing how exceptional I am?" she demanded.

"With all due respect, your excellence on the battlefield is matched only by your poor attitude," Port told her.

"How dare you!"

"My point exactly."

Port observed the girl before him, glaring at him, stiffened shoulders, icy eyes. She exuded haughtiness and anger. "I see a girl before me who has spent her entire life getting exactly what she wanted."

"That's not even **remotely** true." Weiss refuted immediately, but the resulting pause betrayed something new in her expression. "Well… It's not **entirely** true…"

* * *

Ruby's expression of grief and doubt was fading a bit as she found herself awaiting the headmaster's words that were doubtless going to come.

"Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle." Ozpin continued. "But a badge you wear constantly. "If you're not always performing at your absolute best, what reason do you give others to follow you?"

* * *

"So the outcome did not fall in your favor. Do you really believe that acting in such a manner would cause those in power to reconsider their decision? So instead of fretting about what you **don't** have, savor what you do. Hone your skills. Perfect every technique. And be not the best **leader** , but the best **person** you can be."

* * *

As Ruby let that soak in, Ozpin turned away from her. "You've been burdened with a daunting responsibility, Ruby. I advise you take some time, to think about how you will uphold it."

As Ruby watched the man walk away, her eyes fell on Weiss just outside on the balcony. She noticed that Weiss' posture was more relaxed than before as Professor port walked out of view of the entrance. A determined smile found the young girl's lips as she set off to find Yang and Pyrrha.

* * *

"You might want to leave those in."

Mute looked up, his mostly blank expression turning to one of attention once he saw that Ren was talking to him. "The plates that hold your blades in."

Why?

"Because we will be in combat with each other today." Ren nodded to Professor Goodwitch. "Apparently it is an important part of this class."

Mute silently clipped the narrow plates back into his boots and stood up. He wore no combat gear, as he had none. He was instead in white cargo shorts and a gray t-shirt. Everyone else was in clothing more befit their future professions, although seeing Weiss insist that what she was wearing was a 'combat skirt' when talking to a student who had apparently questioned her out of the blue, one neither of them knew.

"Students," Glynda called from her stand nearby a miniature stadium where she could observe battles. "Yesterday you took a lengthy and no doubt difficult pre-assessment. However, I cannot judge your skills on pencil skills alone. Today, I will be judging your abilities on the battlefield against each other. This will further allow me to understand where each of you are, and after compiling this data, it is hoped that it will be a simple task to elevate you all to the skill level necessary to excel in my course."

Everyone looked at the field with mixed reactions. The ones less certain of themselves were glancing at the bigger or meaner students, wondering who they would have to fight. The bigger ones, for their part, either waited in neutral anticipation or leered at the less physically strong warriors among them.

Knowing they were on a time limit, Glynda started the rounds immediately, calling random names to the field. A pair of boys stood across from each other, their weapons drawn and ready. Mute frowned as he saw the blades prepared, looking over at his team leader with an obviously unspoken question.

"Your blades seem to absorb energy. I don't think our auras will protect us from them like they will the blades of everyone else." Ren explained as soon as he got the question. Mute's next question was a bit more sudden and unnerving. What's aura?

Ren looked down on the field as the two students began their battle. The doublade that collapsed and separated into semi-automatic pistols wielded by the blue-haired boy proved too fast of a weapon in comparison to the other boy's choice, a fancy flail that had no long range capabilities but did convert dust into energy, allowing it to be on fire or release electricity. Despite the flashiness, the second boy lost quickly.

"This is a bad time for that to come up properly." He said cautiously, turning to Mute. "It is an extension of our souls. How we use our semblances, and how we defend ourselves and heal minor wounds. If your aura is not unlocked yet… No, it must be. Your semblance is very active. You have nothing to worry about."

Mute blinked before turning to the battlefield again. He watched a few more matches until Yang was called to the stage, and she promptly trounced the poor guy she was set against. Just pushed the weapon aside and socked him in the face without firing her weapon. Her strength scared most people in the room.

But now all of the weapons they had were being showcased. This came to a head when Pyrrha was called to the stage.

Her sword and shield ready in her hands, Pyrrha stood against yet another student. She fought flawlessly, the weapons of her opponent completely outmatched by the raw skill the prodigy brought forth. Mute focused, but he did not see any tricks or semblances that he knew of. As her opponent's aura neared zero, Glynda called the match with Pyrrha untouched.

More battles went on until Leslie was called up. She stood there with her riding crop against a large boy by the name of Cardin Winchester. His mace, a black weapon with its blades serving as a cage that made the mace up, its flanges extended further out than a regular mace would. A red crystal glowed in the center of that cage.

Leslie held her weapon at the ready, eyeing the much larger boy constantly.

"Begin." Came the monotonous voice of Glynda. Leslie swallowed, focusing on one thing: How much she wanted to impress her favorite teacher. Bringing her riding crop behind her, she shifted a slider on the handle up somewhat with a finger, choosing a type of Dust to use. The slider worked in a way that she would pull it to the side first to unlock it, slide it, and let it fall into the correct place. She spun, bringing her weapon up in a spiral as the ring-like tip released an azure glow and the temperature dropped. Cardin was already charging, and she smirked as her spiral brought the crop directly above her. She dropped into a kneeling position whilst swinging the riding crop downwards, releasing a vertical shower of icicles along with a blast of cold air to keep them going.

Cardin dived out of the way in response, startled by the large amount of shart, high-velocity objects headed for him. He narrowed his eyes and gave a battle cry, charging a second time.

Another shift, Leslie's riding crop now glowing with a kind of brown color. She ducked the reckless swing of the mace and at the same time, dragged her weapon across the ground in an arc directly in front of Cardin. The floor suddenly churned and leapt up in a wave, throwing the heavier boy three meters away from Leslie. Seeing victory and accomplishment, she switched her element to a yellow glow and sent a bolt of electricity flying at the downed boy.

...And **missed**.

The unstable bolt struck the ground next to his chest as he levered himself to his knees and charged from there. In desperation, Leslie attempted to make her riding crop glow azure again and summon a wall of ice between her and her enemy.

Cardin grinned and pressed the button on the hilt of his mace, activating the red dust crystal embedded in it. The entire mace glowed with the power of fire, obliterating Leslie's ice wall and smashing her twenty feet away straight into the force field that protected the rest of the students from the action on the small battlefield. Everyone winced at the brutal strike as Leslie staggered to her feet, feeling weak. She habitually checked her scroll, seeing that her aura level was almost completely gone in one strike. Her eyes found Glynda, who was watching her carefully.

She couldn't lose, not now, not when her role model was staring her in the face! Leslie stood, bringing her riding crop around in the hopes of causing chunks of earth to encase the top of the mace and negate the bursts of fire coming from it when Professor Goodwitch's voice rang out. "This match is over!"

Leslie stopped dead in her tracks as the large boy smirked in victory. "Hope you enjoyed that. I certainly did," he told her as he walked by her and Leslie fell to her knees. Her first impression of herself to her favorite instructor was an utter failure. She didn't think it was fair.

Jaune ran out once the force field was dropped for the next people to take the stage. "Hey." he prompted his teammate, who he noticed was starting to sob already. "Leslie?"

"I'm a failure…" she whimpered. "One match against someone slow, and I couldn't do it!"

Jaune shook his head rapidly. "No way. You said it yourself, one match. It was just one match."

"But… Professor Goodwitch…" Leslie whimpered too quietly for anyone to hear.

"Come on. Let's get off the arena." Jaune said gently, motioning Arthur over. The wolf faunus and the scrawny boy helped Leslie stand and walk off of the center, ignoring the mix of sneers and congratulations as the students voiced their opinions about the team connections Jaune's team seemed to have developed for themselves already.

"Let this be a lesson to you all." The professor declared, stepping forward. "There is one incredibly important part of the art of combat. Learning how to back off."

Her stern, somewhat cold tone had Leslie shivering in guilt. She hid her face and silenced herself as she listened to Glynda continued. "When your aura level is low, you and your team must be prepared to back you up and protect you. If the situation is too dangerous, you must know to run away. Preserving your life to live another day, fight another day, and protect more in the future."

She continued calling up names, completely impartial in her note taking. No student was spared from criticism, with the exception of Pyrrha, whose battle had been so flawless Glynda had failed to see anything to comment on with the exception of the order she'd beaten the enemies in, because it would have been **slightly** more efficient to defeat a different one of them first because of the fluidity of the motions Pyrrha had to undertake. Something so small, yet Glynda had it on her list of comments anyhow.

Blake was called up… Against Ruby. Ruby was fast, but she kept falling for Blake's shadow copy trick and invisibility and wound up running low on aura because Blake could sneak up on her. Learning from Glynda's words, she backed down on her own.

The others were brought up, showing that all of them had a lot to learn. Mute heard his name finally, about two-thirds of the way through the list. He stood up and silently walked into the field, standing rather listlessly as he faced his opponent.

Arthur.

The huge wolf faunus took the envelope shaped blade on the massive hilt and jabbed outward with it. The blade slid out of itself, clicking together as it finalized into a sword about five meters long and a meter wide. It was a pure red blade, brighter red than Crescent Rose, Ruby's scythe. The hilt was black. Mute gazed emotionlessly at the powerful teenager.

"Begin." Professor Goodwitch practically intoned.

Arthur lead with a swing of his massive sword using a single hand. Mute brought his boots up in a kick to block, but was surprised as he found himself sliding on one foot across the flat surface of the arena. His full powered kick hadn't helped him.

Mute stalked towards Arthur, his usual battle tactic, as Arthur prepared to strike overhead. While he was immensely powerful, Arthur's movements were slow. Mute stepped aside as the blade slammed brutally into the floor, and he took an extra few steps and kicked Arthur straight in the chest at full power. The boy was forced to let go of his sword as he was tossed from the spot. But Arthur only truly stumbled about a meter and a half.

Mute took a step so that he was out of Arthur's reach with his hands barely, to minimize the leverage he had with his larger than life sword. His instincts kicked in, and he did a front flip, aiming to put his heel straight into Arthur's head. He almost made the action to attack using his blades, which were currently sealed away, but managed to use his heel properly instead.

Arthur leaned back, which was his mistake. Mute's boot ground into the floor as he swept Arthur's legs out from under him while he was unbalanced, and Mute followed up by kicking harshly at the hand that held the sword. Arthur's grip didn't let up. In fact, Mute found that Arthur was attempting to grab his ankle, which Mute responded by lifting his foot and slamming down on Arthur's arm, pinning him.

Arthur didn't like that much. "Get off," he grunted, waving his pinned arm and throwing Mute, much to the silent kid's utter surprise.

Mute set one hand on the ground and corrected his orientation, landing on his feet, staring at Arthur as the muscular faunus stood up. He rushed forward, bringing his blade around. Mute was already stalking forward autonomously, tactics only mattering once he was close enough to hit Arthur. He jumped over the blade and attempted to bring his heel on Arthur's head again, absently noting Glynda writing something down on her notepad in the background.

Arthur's hand gripped his ankle extremely tightly, and Mute felt a freak sort of drain. He planted his hand on the ground and pulled Arthur off his feet The two boys consequently toppled towards the ground, and Mute forced balance into his position. Now holding up his weight and Arthur's weight with a single hand on the ground, he planted his other boot on Arthur and tossed him across the arena with a well-placed kick.

Mute landed on his feet. Arthur did not.

As Arthur lurched to his feet, Mute walked towards him again, ready to attack again. Arthur attacked using the flat of his blade in a wide swipe, Which Mute retaliated against my kicking the blade while bracing himself with his left hand and foot. Because of both Mute's extra friction and the air resistance due to the flat of the blade moving, Mute stopped the weapon this time. He swiftly retaliated by launching himself in what appeared to be a haphazard but actually quite coordinated flip that wound up with both of his feet near Arthur's face. Mute dealt a brutal double kick and then kicked off of the larger boy, landing in a lunging position as the blade landed flat on the ground as Arthur fell on his back once again.

Again he stood up, looking relatively unharmed. As he had seen other students do, he pulled out his scroll and looked at its reading for his aura. It had gone down very little, despite the heavy hits. Mute took this moment to look at his own aura as well, seeing it had drained somewhat. This was likely at the point where he **felt** the unnatural drain of his energy. Why did it feel unnatural to him to have this energy?

Both put away their scrolls and advanced on each other once more. Mute reflected that he could have attacked while Arthur checked his defenses, but a little voice in the back of his mind reminded him that this wasn't a war, this was a spar. So quiet he almost missed it.

Mute began his march forward again, his steady pace constant and his boots making their signature clanking sound as he moved swiftly all of a sudden to attack. The spinning kick was again defended against via Arthur attempting to grab one of his feet again. Mute allowed this to happen so that he had plenty of leverage to kick Arthur right in the face as hard as he could manage, which was a lot.

Twisting himself away, mute immediately began his advance once again. However, the sound of their professor interrupted them. "That's quite enough."

The two boys looked up at Glynda, still well prepared to continue.

"We are on a time constraint." she explained "And I have plenty of data already from my observations. You two may leave the field now."

Mute and Arthur nodded, turning to each other. Mute didn't understand the feeling brimming in his chest, so the newfound emotion of fear enshrouded it as it did everything else. He didn't want to feel anymore. It was making things too complicated.

Still, when Arthur offered his hand, Mute shook it respectably and walked off the stage with him. He needed to figure it out later, and take notes now. Stepping off, he looked at the students yet to go. Among the was Carla and Jaune.

And it seemed that among the two, Jaune was called first. His opponent was about his size, but he looked afraid to attack, keeping his shield in front of him. The opponent just bashed their electric spear into it and shocked him senseless, winning the round for themselves. "That's how it's done, punk," she called as she walked off.

Leslie was somewhat impaired in her misery, and so Carla and Arthur helped Jaune up and off the stage while he twitched. "That didn't go well…" Carla murmured, but then Glynda called from her stand once more.

"Carla Skyborn." the girl heard, and she stopped. "Arthur, could you get him the rest of the way?" she asked kindly, and the big guy nodded and kept Jaune steady on his own.

Carla stepped onto the small battlefield, looking at her scroll. There she was, with her white long hair that was tipped with two inches of blue. Her right red eye and left blue eye stared back at her along with the rest of her team alongside her picture.

She put away the picture and set her hands on her hips where her weapons hung. Metal semicircles were on either side of her wrists, and beneath those were the handles of her knives. Rounded crescents that curled up on the ends. They were silver colored, and the edges of the blades were a deep blue. On her hip behind her primary weapons was a sheathed silver sword, again with a blue edge, the blade shaped like a scimitar and bore spikes off of the back end, giving the side of the blade that wasn't sharp an appearance like a saw. The clean edge that was sharpened would gleam just like her knives could.

The person she faced held what appeared to be a bow, although the entirety of it appeared to be able to contain dust. With the controls she could see all over it, it looked possible to use dozens of combinations of dust techniques with the bow much like the versatility that Leslie had.

Carla registered this in an instant and pressed her wrists against her waists. The semicircles of metal snapped into single piece handcuffs of a sort, chains dangling from them and connecting to the hilts to her knives.

She held the knives in a curious position, one in front of her, pointed up, one behind her, pointed down. The chains hung down about three feet, meaning they were in total six feet long. The familiar weight of the silver chains and her knives helped Carla get into the mood.

"Begin!"

Everybody blinked, and everybody missed it. One moment they were standing at the ready, the next Carla was standing two feet to the side as a hissing firebolt whizzed by her, doing little but making her beautiful white hair wave back in the wind.

The boy across from her blinked in surprise, and Carla was a few steps closer, charging with her blades at the ready.

He yelped and rolled away, coming up with his hand breezing over the various buttons on the bow and activating and deactivating various dust containers of different elements. He shot the next arrow, this one carrying with it a cold front arcing with electricity.

Carla blurred. She was in the way one moment and to the side the next. Her movements revolved around a series of these blinks, appearing as if she was going a normal speed whenever she was visible again before moving quickly.

The arrows didn't touch her. Carla threw one knife and cleanly pierced the string, promptly rendering the dust technique dependant weapon utterly useless, yanking her arm back. The chain on the blade bounced back as it ran out of length, and she snagged her knife back out of the air.

One glance at his broken bowstring, and her opponent forfeited on the spot.

Carla tapped onto the ground at the end of the small leap she had taken, and she patted her knives into their sheathes, pressing her wrist into the magnets that held the cuffs and they unsnapped to free her wrists.

She rubbed her wrists as she walked off the stage, adjusting her surprisingly loose shirt. It was even more loose around the waist than Mute's shirt, almost baggy. Yet, the rest of her outfit was built for battle. Glynda wrote down that she would ask about this personally, as it was an issue nobody shared in the room aside from the boy, Mute. Both would need a change of clothing for battle.

"She did well," Blake commented as the girl walked by her.

"What was she doing?" Ruby asked out of the blue. "She was moving fast like me, but not like me…"

"If I had to guess… I would say that Carla can adjust how she experiences time." Ren offered.

"No kidding." Yang crossed her arms. "But why didn't she use it the whole time?"

"Maybe it's draining…" Ruby suggested.

"You're kind of right." Jaune interrupted behind them, making them jump. "Carla explained it to us when we saw it during initiation… But we should let Carla talk about it if she wants to.

"I will… After class." Carla promised quietly, clasping her hands together with her arms hanging in front of her. Her expression was entirely different to that which she had worn in battle.

Mute turned his attention to the field, where the last match was cleaning itself up. Glynda stood in the center of the arena after several seconds of people looking at an empty floor. "There will be ten minutes before you may leave for your lunch period." Glynda proclaimed calmly. "This means ten minutes for me to outline the five most common problems I witnessed on that battlefield."

Almost everyone got chills, realizing that they might be called out indirectly for whatever. "Fifth." Glynda started coldly. "Your eye movements. With the exception of ten percent of you, the majority of the people in this class failed to move their eyes and constantly analyze their surroundings. Never assume that your opponent is your only opponent. Four of you lost directly because of this failure."

"Fourth." Glynda continued as several students flinched. "Your stances. Many of you sported imperfect stances, or in some cases, a complete lack of battle stance. For some of you it may be because you did not take this seriously because it was not a 'real fight', and I am going to be the one to teach you that every fight is a real fight, and must be treated as such."

"Third. Your vigilance. Forty percent of you completely forgot to check the remaining aura you had when you got a breather." Glynda's gaze found plenty of people who were guilty of this.

"Second, your combinations. Your battle style hardly flowed more than it jerked and jolted around, which can easily get you killed. With very few exceptions, there was no **flow**."

"First and foremost, you lacked versatility. With the single exception of miss Nikos, miss Schnee, and potentially miss Skyborn, your battle styles did not change throughout the fight. When you saw that your tactic was not working, you did not change tactics, you tried harder to win with the same tactics. And on the battlefield, that will get you killed."

Silence.

"For a last message from me to you in our second class of the year… You are here in this school because you wish to put your lives on the line. The first step in succeeding in this school… Is acting like it." Professor Goodwitch finished. "Pack up, change out of your combat dress and back into your school clothing. Go to lunch.

Sufficiently chastised for their mistakes, the children bailed from the classroom.

* * *

"So." Yang said conversationally, sticking a chunk of meat in her mouth.

Mute absently tuned in as he ate cleanly, doing little else. The less he interacted, the less the strange and unwelcome feelings would come.

""Yes…" Carla nodded. "My semblance slows time down around me. However… If I do it for more than a second, it puts a massive drain on my aura."

"But then why'd you only do it for a split second?" Ruby asked through a mouthful of bread.

"A second in my time."

Weiss sat back, analyzing the similarly colored girl across her. "A second in your time would be an instant for us then," she said thoughtfully. "But a second is all you need to avoid something."

"It has its uses." Carla agreed, scooping some peas into her mouth.

As the group ate, they talked about the day they've had so far. Weiss was oddly quiet when her battle against the boar grimm had popped up. The boarbatusk's timely demise was a decent conversation starter, although Weiss seemed distracted regarding it.

Mute didn't want to care, but his eyes kept flitting to every abnormal thing he glimpsed. Weiss being quiet and contemplative more than usual. Nora's constant babble wasn't very helpful, though today she was spending more time moving and less time talking. Once again, she was eating pancakes that hadn't been offered. Mute at this point knew that Ren would bake pancakes, but he hadn't had the time this time. It was a cafeteria, after all. His cooking wasn't entirely necessary.

Outside of his team and Weiss, Pyrrha seemed slightly uncomfortable, his fellow redhead picking at her food somewhat. Ruby and Yang were all right, although Ruby kept glancing at Weiss awkwardly. Carla was reserved after unveiling the nature of her semblance to everyone, as if feeling odd about revealing so much. Next to her, Leslie was still a bit of a wreck after failing in front of Professor Goodwitch, and would need validation from the instructor herself in order to really get back into the swing of things. Jaune was picking at his food after his colossal failure, and Arthur kept glancing at Mute.

Mute couldn't help looking at Arthur after a while of this silent eating between the two of them. One fierce stare met another.

What do you want?

Arthur's gaze stayed on him for a while before he turned away and sipped his water and looked away. "...Not important."

Mute blinked. Did the big guy mean that his problem wasn't important or that **Mute** wasn't important? How could he tell? Arthur had turned away from him and began finishing his food, so he wasn't going to learn that way. What was going to resolve that?

Did it matter?

Not important…

Mute turned to the others, wondering if he should ask anymore questions.

Yang? She would likely try to cheer **him** up. Emotions weren't what he wanted right now.

Ren? He was the team leader, but short spoken and quiet like Mute himself was, or… Or Arthur.

Blake? She was quiet but had a kind heart. She too would say something that would make those emotions burst forth unwillingly.

Ruby? Perhaps. She was capable of being serious when she thought the situation was serious.

Pyrrha? Also maybe.

Leslie, Carla, and Jaune were on Arthur's team. This issue revolved around him, so their opinions would be biased.

Pyrrha held the most promise. He would ask her.

"Guys, you're all acting weird," Ruby called. Mute glanced at her. So the younger one had noticed too. "C'mon, let's all enjoy lunch, okay?"

Mute blinked. Was that really all there was to it? He swiftly looked down at the remainder of his food. He flinched. He had just promised himself to try not to feel the painful and-slash-or confusing emotions. But Ruby, the other one to openly notice that most people had an issue in the group right now, was arguing in favor of essentially drowning the day's problems in delicious food. Enjoyment.

Mute obediently fitted a piece of perfectly cooked meat in his mouth and began chewing. It did taste pleasant, but that wasn't the point. Mute had decided that these emotions were a negative force against him. It was-

"Shutting yourself off again?" Yang's arm slung around his shoulders, making him stiffen and his leg twitch in a way that was almost the start of an attack against his will. "C'mon. We're your friends!"

Mute straightened and looked her in the eye, informing her that he had decided that these emotions were too painful. He didn't want to experience them anymore.

Yang's eyes widened. "Welp." she stood up from the table, dragging Mute up with her. "Mute and I are gonna have a heart-to-heart somewhere. We'll be right back.

Yang lead the apprehensive boy as he looked over his shoulder, turquoise eyes flicking between his friends. Weiss was the only one who looked slightly willing to try and keep the two of them apart, potentially because she didn't like the idea that Yang reminded Mute of a target he once had in his previous life.

Mute was half dragged, half lead to an empty hallway nearby, it was narrow had carts of cleaning equipment sitting in it. Probably a hallway for people working at the mess hall to use. Yang let him go and stood opposite him, giving a neutral look.

"You're a tough guy, right? So tough it out!"

Mute blinked. What?

"If you were emotionless for so long, of course you're gonna be afraid." Yang looked him dead in the eye. "Look. I don't know how powerful you are, how good you are or whatever. I just know that closing yourself off is the worst thing you could do to yourself."

Mute's eyes narrowed. He had apparently survived so long without that, so why should it matter?

"Because you're not that person anymore." Yang took a step forward. The girl had three inches on him, he noticed in the back of his mind. What on earth did she mean?

"You told us you woke up in the middle of the woods with someone telling you you got a fresh start. So act like it. You got emotions for a reason, so tough it out and deal with it." Yang finished, her purple colored eyes holding a tinge of red as she grew slightly angry with Mute's shenanigans.

Yang herded him out of the corridor and back into the eating area, leading the way back. "Everything should be fine now," she said cheerfully as she sat down.

"Great!" Ruby exclaimed, jumping up as her sister sat down to finish her food. "Once we're done here, we can go to the library to deal with Port's reading assignment!"

"That sounds like a good plan." Pyrrha complimented her team's leader.

"I think all of us should go," Blake spoke up.

"Then that's settled." Ren nodded curtly, finishing his food.

"Let's do this!" Nora exclaimed, ever excited.

Mute stared at all of them. He didn't want to feel emotions, but he was anyways. And Yang basically told him that she thought he was strong. As in, it was a challenge. A challenge to be strong enough to learn how to live with emotion.

Mute wasn't happy about it, but something unwelcome bubbled deep in his soul, that screamed to prove that he was strong. It was far fiercer than he wanted it to be. Ferocity wasn't an important aspect of him. Neither was what he was ferocious about, which seemed to be this challenge presented to him.

He only broke this loop of thought off when everyone was finished with their meal and stood to leave for the library.

Mute followed along with his friends as he too stood up and started walking away, his boots making audible clanking noises as he walked off with them. He covered his eyes with his hand upon exiting the mess hall and into the outdoor courtyard before the major school building.

"C'mon, this way!" Nora exclaimed from a door into the building… A clear sixty meters from where the rest of the group currently stood. Her impossibility was clearly beginning to make Ruby jealous. Interestingly, jealousy on the petite girl's part seemed not to be negative, rather, it seemed to spark a driving force to be **faster** …

Mute frowned as he made this observation. It was very much like the observation he had made regarding his own emotions. The girl before him was acting like it was a perfectly natural occurrence, as she would, even as she bolted as fast as her control over her semblance would allow her to catch up.

As the rest reached the area, Nora and Ruby decided to race to the library, disappearing into the doors just as Mute reached the doors themselves, he himself in the middle of the pack of students that made up their three teams.

Unsurprisingly, they stepped into the library to find a staff member chewing the two sheepish children out. Mute rolled his eyes along with the rest of them and went to save his comrades from the irate adult.

Then they sat and began reading their assignments. They already had a lot to cover.

* * *

Snoring could be heard within the RWPY dorm.

The partially shattered moon hung in the center of their window behind the closed curtains, its faint glow making everything. The door opened, letting the light from the dimmed corridor in as the familiar white haired girl entered.

Weiss quietly shut the door behind her, listening to the sounds of the room. Pyrrha and Yang were sleeping quietly. Ruby's snores could scare grimm off. Weiss frowned and pulled back at Ruby's curtains, and stopped.

On her bed were notebooks and textbooks. They surrounded her completely, along with loose pieces of paper and a pencil. Weiss looked at the covers of the books in silence, seeing that they all had to do with class. Her frown lessened somewhat as she took in the girl before her. Everything that surrounded her screamed out how hard she was trying, and after her conversation earlier that day, it was hard not to see that effort.

Weiss stood slightly slack-jawed for a moment before tentatively reaching out for Ruby's arm, clearing her throat. She pulled back after a moment, but it was enough of a touch to get snorts out of Ruby before the younger girl's instincts kicked in and she waveringly tried to swing herself into a sitting position. "Weiss!" she whisper-yelled. "I-I… I was studying, and then I fell asleep I'm sorry…"

The apology reached Weiss' ears yet didn't have the effect she thought she'd get. Instead of accepting it and turning away, she covered Ruby's mouth with her hand and put her finger to her lips in a 'shh' motion, causing Ruby to pipe down. Weiss looked at the toppled coffee mug with a rose emblem on it and turned back to Ruby. "...How do you take your coffee?"

Once she released Ruby's mouth, the dark haired girl was free to voice her confusion. "Uh… I… I don't-"

"Just answer the question."

"Cream and five sugars!" Ruby panicked.

Weiss sighed. "Don't move," she ordered, dropping out of sight. She then popped up again, having somehow produced a coffee in the mug from somewhere. "Here."

"Um…" Ruby murmured, accepting the cup. "Thanks, Weiss."

Weiss looked at all of the hard effort Ruby was clearly putting in during the wee hours of the night and saw something she didn't expect to see. Raw determination, much like that which drove her. It humanized Ruby immensely in her eyes, and given Port's speech from before, Weiss looked Ruby in the eyes and said something very important: "Ruby, I think you have what it takes to be a good leader. Just know… That **I** … Will be the **best** teammate you will ever have. Good luck studying."

Weiss disappeared to her bunk underneath Ruby for a moment before popping back up and sticking her finger on an answer Ruby had written. "That's wrong, by the way."

Weiss walked to the door, apparently intent on going out again for whatever purpose. "Hey, Ruby?" she asked quietly.

"...Yeah?"

"I always wanted bunk beds as a kid."

Weiss walked out of the room, leaving Ruby to figure out what the floof had just happened.

* * *

 **Now, as I've shown in this chapter, there's some things that are going to come directly from canon. This is because they are very important to the story itself. If I want a reader who has not watched RWBY for whatever reason, I want them to understand the changing dynamics between the characters. So far, only three things have really changed from Canon. The OCs, the team orientation, and my own influence. Things that aren't affected by those changes right now would probably still happen in this non-canon fanfiction. That's my defense, anyhow.**

 **Yeah, team RWBY is technically team RWPY. When I first wrote it, it gave me mental images of Link showing up and hearing about their existence, starting to break shit in the hopes of finding them... But I'm probably not going to do that.**

 **Oh, by the way, Carla's knives are shaped like the larger horn of a mega absol (that's really hard to describe properly) And her sword is shaped like the tail of a mega absol. Just... Very difficult to describe the former's shape using words for me.**

 **So ultimately, I hope you liked my chapter, short as it was. Please give me your thoughts and impressions in your reviews, and I hope to see all of you next time.**


End file.
